1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, September 10, 2007 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X September 10, 2007 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Update on the L.I.F.E. Program 8 4 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 5 accept resignation of Charles Donellan from Alamo Area Senior Advisory Committee and appoint 6 Patrice B. Doerries to fill vacancy 14 7 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on autopsy transportation and pauper cremation 8 charges paid to funeral service providers 17 9 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action in 2007-2008 budget process to use some money in 10 Fund 20 to purchase used excavator 23 11 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for Revision of Plat of Vistas Escondidas de Cypress 12 Springs, & set public hearing for same 29 13 1.6 Consider/discuss take appropriate action for Pre- liminary Plat of Vistas Escondidas (to be renamed) 30 14 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 15 Revision of Lots 99, 100 and 101 of The Horizon, and set date for public hearing for same 39 16 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 17 revision of Lots 25 & 26 of The Horizon, and set date for public hearing for same 42 18 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 19 Kerr County Investment Policy 43 20 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to hire Patterson and Company as investment advisers 21 for Kerr County 47 22 1.9 Request to raise or build a new high water bridge on Town Creek Road and Old Harper Road, Silver 23 Saddle Housing Subdivision 48 24 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to establish the cost for obtaining a copy of the 25 FY 2007-08 Kerr County Budget from County Clerk 55 3 1 I N D E X September 10, 2007 2 PAGE 3 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to further discuss new policy, fee schedule and 4 booking agent for Kerr County Exhibition Center & rescind all previous orders pertaining to such 56 5 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 6 appoint a new Constable for Precinct 1 67 7 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on proposed changes for FY 2007-08 budget 71 8 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 9 governance issues related to the Kerrville/ Kerr County Joint Airport Board 115 10 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 11 set date, time, and place of public hearing on Kerr County FY 2007-08 budget 125 12 1.17 Consider/discuss, approve by record vote the 13 proposed Kerr County 2007 Tax Rate and set date, time, and place of first and second public 14 hearings on such tax rate 129 15 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize publication of notice(s) of proposed 16 salary, expenses, and other allowances of Kerr County elected county or precinct officers for 17 FY 2007-08 and set date, time, and place of public hearing on same 143 18 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to amend 19 the Kerr County EDAP Application, requesting only Planning Activities Funding 147 20 1.20 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 21 amend the contract for services with Tetra Tech to provide planning services 147 22 4.0 Approval Agenda (Bills, budget amendments, reports) 156 23 5.0 Reports (Commissioners, Elected Officials, 24 Department Heads) 161 25 --- Adjourned 180 4 1 On Monday, September 10, 2007, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Ladies and gentlemen, let me call to 7 order this regular meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners 8 Court which was scheduled and posted for this time and date, 9 Monday, September the 10th, 2007, at 9:00 a.m. It is a bit 10 past that time now. If you would rise and join me in a moment 11 of prayer, and then we'll do the pledge of allegiance to our 12 nation's flag. 13 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 15 any member of the public that wishes to be heard on any matter 16 that is not a listed agenda item, feel free to come forward at 17 this time. If you wish to be heard on an agenda item, we 18 would ask that you fill out a participation form. There 19 should be some at the back of the room. If for some reason 20 there aren't, when we get to that particular agenda item, if 21 you'll get my attention in some manner, I'll see that you have 22 an opportunity to be heard. If you -- if you haven't filled 23 out a participation form and for some reason want to be heard 24 on an agenda item, get my attention; we'll give you the 25 opportunity to be heard. We want you to have that 9-10-07 5 1 opportunity. But if there's any member of the audience that 2 wishes to be heard on any matter that is not a listed agenda 3 item, please feel free to come forward at this time. Seeing 4 no one coming forward, we'll move on. Commissioner Baldwin? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you have anything for us this 7 morning? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. I kind of wish you had 9 added General -- the general reports to Congress today. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Petraues? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Petraues -- to your prayer. 12 In my opinion, that's going to be one of the turning points 13 for our country today. We've had some really great football 14 over the weekend. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Really great. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Boy, I'm telling you what, 17 man, it was a fun time. But, Judge, that's all I have. We 18 have an interesting and large meeting today. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Commissioner Williams? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, Judge, I do have 21 something here. I want to pass this out to members of the 22 Court and read this into the record. This is a letter I am 23 writing to you as County Judge that reads, "Dear Judge Tinley, 24 based on independent research and review of applicable case 25 law and statutes regarding the prohibition to 9-10-07 6 1 self-appointment, and acting on the advice of independent 2 counsel, I hereby tender my resignation as a member of the 3 Kerrville/Kerr County Joint Airport Board effective 4 immediately." Signed William H. Williams. That's all I'm 5 going to say about it now, Judge. I'll have plenty more to 6 say about it when we get to the airport agenda item. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else for us this morning, 8 Commissioner? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That will do for now. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Commissioner Letz? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: First, it was great football. 12 And the Aggies squeaked out. What can I say? 13 MR. ODOM: Aggies won. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They won. They won, but they -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Took half a day. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- took half a day, that's 17 right. But they did win. And the other item I have is 18 something kind of similar to what Commissioner Williams just 19 said. I will read a similar letter into the record and hand 20 it out. "Dear Judge Tinley and Kerr County Commissioners 21 Court, last Friday, September 7th, 2007, I became aware of 22 potential conflicts in case law and statutes concerning my 23 appointment to the Kerrville/Kerr County Joint Airport Board. 24 After consultation with counsel and others concerning this 25 matter, I hereby tender my letter of resignation from the 9-10-07 7 1 Kerrville/Kerr County Joint Airport Board effective 2 immediately. Jonathan Letz." And like Commissioner Williams, 3 I'm sure I'll have a few comments to make a little bit later 4 during the day. That's all I have. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm not going to have a whole 8 lot to say this morning. I think we'll just get on with the 9 meeting. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: You're not resigning from anything 11 this morning? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm not resigning from 13 anything. I may be shot, but I'm not going to resign. I'm 14 not going to go willingly. (Laughter.) 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Need to announce our stall sale. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, yeah, I can tell you we 17 did sell the -- the horse stalls over the weekend at auction, 18 and I believe they brought a significant amount of money, more 19 than we expected. And we will get the final total from our 20 Treasurer at some point, I guess, when we ask for it. But I 21 didn't -- wasn't there, but anyway, Danny Feller did the sale 22 at no charge. He auctioned them off, and I don't exactly know 23 how many buyers there were there, but there were more than two 24 or three. I think we did real well in it, and I'm glad to 25 report that we probably got more for them than we had in them. 9-10-07 8 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's good. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's always a good thing. 3 One reason you go to auction instead of just having bids. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Auctions are amazing. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, they are. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or can be amazing, I should say. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How many did we sell, 8 Commissioner? 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Forty. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Forty? Wow. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: As they say in the trade, they 12 brought good money. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's get on and get down to 15 business. First item on the agenda is an update on the 16 L.I.F.E. program. Ms. Schuster with the Kerr County Juvenile 17 Probation. Mr. Walston? 18 MR. WALSTON: I was going to introduce her and just 19 give you an update. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Go ahead. 21 MR. WALSTON: Judge, Commissioners, I appreciate 22 y'all including Carla on your agenda this morning. I'd just 23 like to give you a little bit of an update on this program, 24 kind of where it got started. I know it's been a long program 25 going. We've been at it for about three or four years, I 9-10-07 9 1 guess. The Judge came to us and -- and asked us about how we 2 could possibly incorporate this program or a program similar 3 to this, and this is a program that actually we're starting 4 here in Kerr County. It's a pilot program; it's not done 5 anywhere in the state. I've contacted our 4-H specialist, and 6 they say yeah, we've got another program similar to this in 7 South Texas. Well, that's confined inmates. These are not 8 confined inmates. They're young men and women that 9 voluntarily, with the Judge's -- with the Judge's input, are 10 participating in this program. So, it's -- it's L.I.F.E. -- a 11 L.I.F.E. program entitled Leadership is for Everyone. And one 12 of the -- when we started this program back with Kevin Stanton 13 in that Juvenile Chief Probation position, Kevin and I got to 14 visiting and saw there were some available funds through the 15 board and through federal funding that -- that is available 16 that we can utilize for this program. Now, Jason Davis has 17 picked the ball up and run with it. And, finally, with the 18 thanks of Carla Schuster and her wisdom and excellent 19 educational support, she's -- she's carrying the ball and 20 doing an excellent job with it. And, like I say, this is a 21 pilot program. It's been going since the middle of June, and 22 I just want to let Carla go ahead and fill you in on what 23 she's seen how the program's run. 24 MS. SCHUSTER: Thank you. Good morning. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good morning. 9-10-07 10 1 MS. SCHUSTER: We have 12 different subjects that we 2 will cover over a year. We have -- so far, we've covered 3 three. And the classes, it's very -- I don't know who learns 4 more, me or them. The kids are -- seem to be responding very 5 well to things we have in there. We play lots of games. 6 We've discussed self-esteem, trustworthiness, and character 7 traits. My classes range -- probably, the total is probably 8 close to 30 kids. I have two classes, two different age 9 groups, one on Monday evening and one on Wednesday evening, 10 and it's a lot of fun. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Anybody on the Court have any 12 questions of Ms. Schuster? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you for your service. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do the kids seem to be 16 responding well to it? 17 MS. SCHUSTER: I'm going to tell you, whatever -- I 18 have two rules in my classroom, and the first one is that 19 everybody has to participate. The second one is that nobody 20 talks while I'm talking. But everybody wants to have their 21 time around the table, and that's what we do. And, yes, they 22 do. It's amazing; they all want to come in and tell me what's 23 gone on the last week or the last month, decisions that 24 they've had -- that they've faced. They enjoy telling me, and 25 they're very forthcoming with things. And we discuss how they 9-10-07 11 1 could have handled it or that they did a really good job on 2 what they chose. So, yeah, I think so. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you -- how do the kids get in 4 the program? 5 MS. SCHUSTER: They are -- whenever they come before 6 the Judge, the Judge requires that they come to the class. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, these are just Kerr County 8 kids? 9 MS. SCHUSTER: Yes, sir. But so far, the ones that 10 have started my class and that have come, it -- I guess -- I 11 had a kid that asked me, "Does anybody just kind of skip your 12 class?" And once they come, they don't. They've all been 13 there. So, they keep coming back. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How long do these classes 15 last? 16 MS. SCHUSTER: They're two hours. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And the duration of the 18 whole course? 19 MS. SCHUSTER: Whatever their time frame that 20 they're serving on probation. So, that's why we kind of broke 21 it up into 12 different subjects, 'cause at any point in time, 22 they can come into the class; they can gain some knowledge of 23 whatever it is we're talking about, and that can be used on 24 its own. I have some -- I think the least or the shortest 25 amount of time is probably maybe three months, and I have some 9-10-07 12 1 that are on there for a year. So -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this a -- I mean, the 3 attendance is required as a condition of the probation? 4 MS. SCHUSTER: It's required. But I'm sure that 5 they all have ways to get out of coming. And the only time 6 any -- anybody has missed or they're not there is if they have 7 told me ahead of time they're not going to be there. And if 8 they're off of probation, they've done their time. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have any continued to come after 10 the probation? 11 MS. SCHUSTER: Yes, and that's the most exciting. I 12 still have some that -- actually have some that they are 13 getting off, and they're wanting to participate, roll into 14 some of the 4-H programs, and I'm real excited about that. 15 So, they're looking forward to it, and they keep telling me, 16 "We're really passionate about this. I really want to do 17 this. Can you help me?" And I'm willing to help them 18 however. So -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Outstanding. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Great. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I think I've mentioned a number of 22 times that the kids I don't see coming before me as the 23 juvenile judge in this county are those that participate in 24 the 4-H programs or programs of that sort, so it's really not 25 rocket science. We just conceived an idea to try and blend 9-10-07 13 1 the 4-H life skills program and put that together with our 2 juvenile justice probationary programs. And, as Roy said, it 3 took us a while to get this thing launched. We had to go up 4 through the district office and the state and back down to 5 district, and we -- but we finally got it nailed down. And 6 it's really too early to tell, but the indications we've 7 gotten to this point are pretty -- pretty doggone encouraging. 8 She's -- she gives us a report every couple of weeks, and 9 we -- there's some disappointments, but -- 10 MS. SCHUSTER: There's some that are not going to 11 catch on. But there are -- it's amazing, because even in the 12 conversation with the kids, there are things that they're 13 telling me that maybe they don't realize that they've learned. 14 That's what I think is really great. 'Cause they'll realize 15 later, but they're already doing some of those things. And it 16 may be in their own way, but they're still doing it. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: We're hoping for good things to come 18 of it. And the 4-H people on the state level are watching 19 this thing, and hopefully we'll -- maybe we'll have something 20 that they can look at in the future. Thank you, Ms. Schuster. 21 MS. SCHUSTER: Thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate it. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, is there a slot for 25 somebody that's a little bit older? 9-10-07 14 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We might be able to make a special 2 dispensation. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Would you -- would you get 4 me a wheel chair to roll me in? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's go to the second item. 6 It is a timed item at 9:15; it's just a bit past that now. 7 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to accept the 8 resignation of Charles Donellan from the Alamo Area Senior 9 Advisory Committee and appoint Patrice B. Doerries, Senior 10 CARES Coordinator, to fill this vacancy. Commissioner 11 Williams? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. 13 Mr. Donellan, unfortunately, has experienced some bad problems 14 with his health, and felt that he could not continue in 15 service to the Advisory Board on the Area on Aging. And he 16 notified us of that -- he notified the agency of that back in 17 May. So, it's kind of been laying dormant for a few months. 18 I had an e-mail from a lady at AACOG who oversees the senior 19 activities and programs reminding me that we had a spot open 20 and we needed to fill that, and so she had suggested somebody 21 in our midst who might be willing and able to do that, and 22 that is a lady named Patrice Doerries, who is the CARES 23 Coordinator for the Hill Country Crisis Council. Ms. Doerries 24 and I met and talked about this and the programs, and -- and I 25 want the Court to meet her this morning. Patrice, would you 9-10-07 15 1 come to the podium, please? And just give us a little sense 2 of who you are and what you're all about, and then we'll go 3 from there. 4 MS. DOERRIES: Okay. I'm Patrice Doerries. Good 5 morning. I am the Senior CARES Coordinator for the Hill 6 Country Crisis Council. I'm sure you all know that we have 7 almost twice the number of seniors in Kerr County as the state 8 does demographically. And I am a resident of Kerr County. I 9 am 60-plus, so I think I qualify as a senior. And -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Both of us do. 11 MS. DOERRIES: Okay. And after my husband retired 12 and we moved to Kerr County, I opened the Alzheimer's 13 Association here in Kerr County, and it closed last summer. 14 And Sheryl Howard with the Hill Country Crisis Council asked 15 if I would come and do the same thing. So, I have a lot of 16 experience with seniors, and I welcome the opportunity to 17 continue to serve in this capacity. I do train with Debbie 18 Billa, who is the Executive Director of AACOG, and we are 19 master trainers for Stanford University Medical School, and 20 there is a lot of work that is being done here. My 21 observation historically has been that seniors retire here, 22 but they really do not have a plan as to what's going to 23 happen if a crisis takes place. In checking with Adult 24 Protective Services, Leslie Flores and Charles Burkhalter, the 25 caseworkers, they are overloaded with seniors who lack 9-10-07 16 1 resources or are unable to care for themselves and are in a 2 crisis situation. So, I welcome this opportunity to be an 3 advocate for seniors from Kerr County, and if you have any 4 questions, please let me know. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Patrice. If the 6 members of the Court don't have any questions about it, I'll 7 put a motion in front of us. I move that we accept the 8 resignation of Mr. Charles Donellan, with thanks and 9 appreciation for his service, and appoint Patrice B. Doerries, 10 who is the Senior CARES Coordinator for the Hill Country 11 Crisis Council, to fill the vacancy on the Alamo Area Agency 12 on Aging. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 15 indicated. Any further question or discussion on the motion? 16 All in favor of that motion, signify by raising your right 17 hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank you, 22 ma'am. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you very much, 24 Patrice. 25 MS. DOERRIES: Thank you. 9-10-07 17 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 3; consider, 2 discuss, and take appropriate action on autopsy transportation 3 and pauper cremation charges paid to funeral service 4 providers. I put this on the agenda at the request of 5 Mr. Grimes and Mr. Allen. They have appeared before the Court 6 some few months ago, as I recall. I don't recall exactly when 7 it was, but they had raised, as I recall, three issues. One 8 was the rising costs of transportation for autopsies, the 9 pauper cremations. There was an issue with respect to what 10 they term "first call," but I understand that that's off the 11 table at the present time, and so we're looking solely at the 12 transportation for autopsies and the pauper cremations this 13 morning. One additional item on the crash bag as an add-on, 14 if that's necessary because of the circumstances of the death 15 or whatever. Any of you gentlemen like to come forward? 16 Mr. Allen? 17 MR. ALLEN: Judge, Commissioners, thank you for 18 allowing us to come before you again this morning. As you 19 recall, several months ago we had -- we had come before you, 20 and I think Commissioner Letz had asked us to come back later 21 in the year, closer to the end of the budget year, while y'all 22 were preparing for the new budget cycle. And that's what 23 we're here today for, to come before you again. I'm here 24 representing my firm, Kerrville Funeral Home. Johnny Grimes 25 was supposed to have been here, but I think he got tied up, 9-10-07 18 1 and John's here representing Grimes Funeral Chapels. I've 2 dropped by a handout for you, some statistical information 3 that we had -- we'd gathered and compiled for your -- your 4 review. Dropped that by Friday. I hope you've had an 5 opportunity to look at that and review it. Is there any 6 questions pertaining to what I've submitted to you in regards 7 to that? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, I have one. The Judge 9 indicated that one of the items that has been under discussion 10 is off the table, and that's the first call issue, and that we 11 were down to maybe one or two items as per your memorandum to 12 the Court. I -- I didn't hear anybody say that it's on or off 13 the table, the issue of refrigeration, which you seem to be 14 asking for some compensation for that. 15 MR. ALLEN: No, sir, that was for information 16 purposes only, to let you know the extra mile that we, as 17 providers, are -- are doing for the county. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 19 MR. ALLEN: We're not asking for any consideration 20 in that part other than just continued cooperation and trying 21 to resolve those issues in a timely manner, where we're not 22 continually losing more revenue. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- I know that in the past, 25 I think Mr. Grimes, maybe, and I have talked about the number 9-10-07 19 1 of autopsies that are done in this county, and there was talk 2 about having the medical examiner come in and give a -- kind 3 of a talk to our J.P.'s about when autopsies are required and 4 not required. And that's something I think we may just want 5 to -- I bring it up now, because we have a new J.P. that runs 6 today; we have another one that was born -- or not born, 7 elected -- J.P. 3 -- not long ago. So, it may be a good thing 8 to do that again or bring that up. And I -- I only see one 9 J.P. in the room now, J.P. 1. He may talk to Mr. Grimes about 10 that. I think that it is something -- I mean, obviously, if 11 we need to do autopsies, they need to be done. But if, you 12 know, they don't, we don't need to do them just for no reason. 13 MR. ALLEN: Commissioner, if you will, Johnny Grimes 14 and I have been working on that. We've had numerous 15 discussions about it. We're trying to put that together and 16 cause that to happen, and we're willing to sponsor it and -- 17 and make it happen on behalf of the county, try to help 18 educate the -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I appreciate that. 20 MR. ALLEN: -- the members. And, as well, there's 21 new legislation in place concerning death registration 22 electronically, and we need to coordinate the efforts of 23 getting the justices of the peace educated and up and running 24 on that, and we're trying to coordinate those efforts jointly. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: So, your request here today is that 9-10-07 20 1 the Court consider the autopsy transportation charge being 2 increased to $350, that the cremation -- pauper cremation be 3 increased to $750, and that when there's a use of a crash bag 4 because of particular circumstances of the death, that the 5 Court authorize the payment of $125 for that particular item? 6 That's your request today? 7 MR. ALLEN: Correct. And the crash bag statement in 8 there is just -- just to state that we're not asking for an 9 increase over that. That's what's been charged in the past, 10 and we're not asking for any increase there. And also noted 11 on the transportation charges, if you will, there was -- there 12 was a sentence in there that clarified if there's any waiting 13 time, there won't be any extra charge considered there. That 14 $350 is to and from Austin with no waiting time. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: And that's traditionally what you've 16 done. You take the body to the medical examiner's office, you 17 wait on them to perform their service -- 18 MR. ALLEN: Yes. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: -- after making an appointment, which 20 may or may not come to pass -- 21 MR. ALLEN: Absolutely. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- in a timely manner. And then, 23 when that's completed, you return the body back. 24 MR. ALLEN: Typically speaking, if we make a removal 25 the night before, the J.P. calls the medical examiner's 9-10-07 21 1 office, sets an appointment. Typically speaking, it's a 2 10 o'clock appointment the next morning most of the time. 3 Sometimes they'll say 8 o'clock, so in turn, we've got to get 4 up pretty early and get there because of traffic and so forth. 5 We wait for them to complete it. If it's a 10 o'clock 6 appointment, there's a lot of times we're stuck there waiting. 7 You know, and it's usually -- it kills a day. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you recall the last time this 9 was increased? 10 MR. ALLEN: I've owned Kerrville Funeral Home for 11 six years, and it's never been increased since I've been here. 12 Mr. Grimes may be able to -- 13 MR. GRIMES: Been close to probably ten years. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't know. It hasn't been since 15 I've been in office. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My recollection, it was -- I 17 know it's increased since I've been a Commissioner, but 18 obviously it was probably about ten years ago, early in my 19 term. Okay. I don't really have a problem with it. I think 20 their costs have gone up during that period, and it's not a 21 huge budgetary impact. The total impact to our budget's 22 $2,620. I'm -- I have no problem with doing it. We can 23 probably -- as far along as we are in the budget process, 24 after the budget is adopted, do a budget amendment and take 25 the funds from somewhere in the Sheriff's Department. 9-10-07 22 1 MR. ALLEN: Commissioner Letz -- Commissioner Letz, 2 as Judge Tinley and I discussed before Commissioners Court 3 this morning, considering the -- the current level of 4 autopsies being performed at the request of J.P.'s in Kerr 5 County now and so forth, and with that decline, I don't think 6 we're going to see an issue with that line item in the budget 7 being a problem. And certainly on the pauper cremations, 8 that's declined, and -- and that's an effort between the 9 funeral homes and Judge Tinley. Judge Tinley's done a great 10 job in riding herd over that situation. And, of course, both 11 -- both firms, Kerrville Funeral Home and Grimes Funeral 12 Chapels as well, have embraced a program that Judge Tinley 13 knows about. It's called Life Legacy. It's a nonprofit group 14 out of Tucson, Arizona, that will take the deceased for -- for 15 organ and tissue donation, and if the family will agree to it 16 and sign off on it, and the individual -- deceased individual 17 meets all the requirements, then that alleviates the County 18 from having to even consider pauper cremation. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, we probably don't need to do 20 any budget amendment, just need to approve the changes. I'll 21 make a motion that we approve transport fee increase -- or 22 autopsy increase by $350, so that that amount will now be 23 $2,350, and county cremation is an increase of $100, so that 24 amount will now be -- 625? 725? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: 750. 9-10-07 23 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 750. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: 750 on county cremations and 350 on 3 their transportation costs. They can't control the autopsy 4 cost; that's done separately by the -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's set by the medical 8 examiner. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Second. 10 MR. ALLEN: And that would be effective October 1st 11 for the new budget cycle, correct? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. And if budget amendments 13 are required during the year, then we'll look for the funds. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second as 15 indicated. Any further question or discussion? All in favor 16 of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank you, 21 gentlemen. We appreciate you being here. 22 MR. ALLEN: Thank you. We appreciate y'all very 23 much. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 4, if we might. 25 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action in the '07-'08 9-10-07 24 1 budget process to use some of the money in Fund 20 to purchase 2 a used excavator. That's a pretty good-size piece of iron, 3 isn't it, Leonard? 4 MR. ODOM: Sir? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a good-sized piece of iron, 6 isn't it? 7 MR. ODOM: Good-sized piece of iron, yes, sir. 8 Before I start, what I'd like to say to Rex and to Mr. Baldwin 9 and Mr. Letz is that people do not ask who lost, and close 10 only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was a good game; put it that 12 way. 13 MR. ODOM: It was a good game. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Regardless of who the opponent 15 was. 16 MR. ODOM: That's true. And both sides played good; 17 that was good offense. Not very good defense, but good 18 offense. We might have a problem come -- come turkey day; I 19 don't know. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You might. 21 MR. ODOM: You're going to play us there. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I understand. I'm not 23 talking about my team. 24 MR. ODOM: No -- well, I will be at your team for my 25 reunion; I will be seeing that Baylor game too. 9-10-07 25 1 JUDGE TINLEY: It would be a miracle, but miracles 2 have been known to happen. 3 MR. ODOM: Have been known to happen, yes, sir. 4 This is a -- in talking to the Auditor, they talked to me 5 about some funds that we had. And the problems I've been 6 having with those two Gradalls, I've had -- I've just spent 7 over $11,000 just to repair one, which with my budget, I 8 thought I had it right down to the end of the year. I've 9 already replaced one engine -- diesel engine in the other one. 10 So, you know, when we bought these, we knew that they were 11 used, and this is an opportunity to pick up, I believe, an 12 excavator that's a used excavator, but it's through the Buy 13 Board. It is about two years old; I think an '06. It's got 14 about 1,100 hours on it, approximately. It's a $300,000 unit, 15 and can be purchased for around $206,000, and I may be able 16 to -- we may be able to do better than that; I don't know. 17 But I know that this is the purchase price. 18 It is an opportunity, I believe, over the long term 19 to use the excavator. It is hydraulic. I'd eliminate the old 20 things. What I have is a 1989 and a 1990. It's electrical. 21 It's very difficult to keep the electrodes -- the diodes and 22 things like that go out on it, so it was a maintenance 23 problem. But, you know, the idea is -- is to have less down 24 time. The new machine is hydraulics, very -- simpler to work 25 on, lasts easier. It is a good piece of equipment, and I 9-10-07 26 1 believe will last us another seven to ten years, well past my 2 tenure for the County. So, I would ask the Court to consider 3 this. The funds are available to purchase this. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Leonard, is this a Gradall-type 5 machine or excavator-type machine? 6 MR. ODOM: It is a Gradall. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A Gradall. 8 MR. ODOM: It is a Gradall. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: So, it's not a track machine, then? 10 MR. ODOM: No, sir, it is mobile. It is just like 11 the others; it is capable of going anywhere we need to go. 12 It's got a 30-foot reach with that bucket, which helps me for 13 trash or brush or debris like that. It's a little bit longer 14 reach than what I have now on the old units, and it is 15 something that I think that in the future we could probably 16 eliminate one or both, maybe keep one as a backup for this one 17 here in case it went down. But we could eliminate one or two 18 of those old units. And -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The success we have on surplus 20 or eBay-type things on this equipment, that may be a good 21 avenue to get rid of one of those. Probably be a good -- 22 MR. ODOM: It would bring a good penny. They're 23 worth a lot of money, just the used ones, yes, sir. And 24 it's -- this would fit into what I'm thinking about doing with 25 the crews, to have more maintenance done, because we have 9-10-07 27 1 three-man crews. I'm probably going to reassign some people, 2 and one of the people is one of the better Gradall operators. 3 So, we can do more ditches and things like that. That's where 4 our complaints are going to; brush cutting, ditches. A little 5 Alamo Heights is what we're becoming. Different type of 6 complaints. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I probably don't want an explanation 8 of that, do I, Leonard? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Probably not. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the -- where are the 11 funds coming from? 12 MR. ODOM: From road districts. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, it's that money that -- 14 okay. 15 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We talked about it last time. 17 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much is in that fund? 19 MR. ODOM: Over $209,000. It's something we did 20 years ago; we finished the road districts. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I got in the middle of a huge 22 conversation at the football game the other night. An angry 23 constituent here and the former TexDOT engineer over here, and 24 I'm in the middle of it, and keeping my mouth shut. And 25 they -- the war was how cities and TexDOT level of governments 9-10-07 28 1 can't seem to get into a maintenance mode. It is just good 2 and refreshing to hear that the County's doing the right 3 thing, of -- we build good roads and we put forth effort and 4 money. That's what the key is, is spending money, having 5 someone that understands what maintenance does, and having a 6 board that approves the money understand it as well, and I 7 think we have a great situation here. They couldn't -- they 8 couldn't seem to bring the county in the conversation, 9 because -- because of that, because we do the right thing. 10 MR. ODOM: I think we have for 17 years. I think 11 we've been on the right direction. I've had support -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's not get carried away 13 here. Seventeen? (Laughter.) 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that we 15 approve the request to use the road district excess funds for 16 the purchase of a -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are you going to do? A 18 specific amount, aren't you? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. A Waukeski, I guess, 20 Pierce Limited -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Waukesha. 22 MR. ODOM: Waukesha-Pierce. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Waukesha? Polish name. 24 Waukesha. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Old Indian talk. 9-10-07 29 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It is. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Excavator-slash-Gradall for 3 total purchase price not to exceed $206,055.40, and request 4 that Road and Bridge look into surplussing the -- one of our 5 other pieces of equipment and selling same. 6 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 9 indicated. Further questions or discussion? All in favor of 10 the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll move 15 to Item 5; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for 16 revision of plat of Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs, as 17 set forth in Volume 7, Page 363 of the Plat Records, located 18 in Precinct 4, and set a public hearing for the same. 19 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. This is a revision, combining 20 two lots into one, and at this time we request a public 21 hearing for October the 24th, 2007, at 10:10 a.m. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So moved. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second to set a 25 public hearing on this matter for October 24th, 2007, for 9-10-07 30 1 10:10 a.m. Any further question or discussion on the motion? 2 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 3 hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. We'll move to 8 Item 6; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for 9 preliminary plat of Vistas Escondidas, that to be renamed, and 10 located in Precinct 2. 11 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. This plat is both inside and 12 outside the ETJ in Precinct 2. It's a total acreage of 13 77.48 acres, and will have eight lots. Enclosed in your 14 packet is the preliminary drainage study, but Wayne Wells has 15 not reviewed it at this time. They're asking for a 16 County-maintained road, and we believe the following items 17 need to be addressed: The name of the road and the name of 18 the subdivision are both duplicates and need to be changed. 19 The developer is asking for a variance to the 50-foot building 20 setback on the road within the subdivision. Attached to the 21 -- your packet is a letter from Mr. Digges, and I believe he's 22 here. 23 MR. DIGGES: Yes. 24 MR. ODOM: And so if you wish to direct some 25 questions about it, the variance that would have to be set by 9-10-07 31 1 the Court, and I believe he's aware of the name change. You 2 saw prior to this we had the same name in Precinct 4 out 3 there, and we've gone through this, I think, previously in the 4 last couple meetings about having the same name, so that needs 5 to be addressed as well as the street name, I believe. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Leonard, what's the reason for 7 the developer wants -- the reason for the variance request? 8 MR. ODOM: Well, if you take a look at that on the 9 contours and all, I can see where they're coming from. You're 10 going to be setting back -- it is so close up there on top 11 with the crown up there that that extra 25 foot is going to -- 12 the building sites are right up in there on -- on this crest. 13 If you take another 25 feet in there, you're pushing them off 14 that slope, and it's just -- unfortunately, it's just the way 15 it is. And when we look at variances, we look at the impact 16 that one would have. And I can see their argument, as well as 17 -- as far as that variance on that short road. Must be 400 or 18 500 feet. Am I right? 19 MR. DIGGES: Yes. 20 MR. ODOM: Something like that, and goes to a 21 cul-de-sac, and there's no outlet at all. So, they're not 22 asking for a variance up front on our public road. But I 23 think -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Only on the cul-de-sac? 25 MR. ODOM: It's on a cul-de-sac. And when you look 9-10-07 32 1 at the contours there, you'll see that that crown -- that 2 crown of that hilltop is right there. And if you have another 3 25 feet, that's pushing them off that slope. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: So, what you're saying is these 5 people that want to buy these larger-acreage tracts that live 6 out in a rural environment so that they won't have a neighbor 7 right at their -- out their side window are all going to be 8 right there at the top of the hill. 9 MR. ODOM: They're going to be at the top of the 10 hill. The same thing, but then it falls off. But, you know, 11 it's -- I'm not sure what the cost would be, and it always 12 costs money to look down on people. (Laughter.) So, I guess 13 that's something that you have to consider. But if you're 14 looking at the building aspects, I can understand the 15 marketing aspect of it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Leonard -- and maybe just -- 17 it's not really this way when you get up there, but it appears 18 to me that if they would just shorten that road a little bit, 19 it would greatly improve the -- 20 MR. ODOM: Come up before he hits that -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, just shorten it back this 22 way. You're going to add the other -- you know, and -- 23 MR. ODOM: But you're going to dig into that hill, 24 now. You're going -- if you shorten that road, that 25 cul-de-sac comes out, and so you're going to drop it. 9-10-07 33 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, I see. You're coming up 2 that hill. 3 MR. ODOM: Yeah, that's all hill. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 MR. ODOM: So you're going to end up dropping that 6 thing, and you'll make the driveways maybe go way back up in 7 there for sure. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, the thing is that that's 10 a minimum setback. If you do the variance, it doesn't mean 11 that somebody can't hang their house off the bluff. 12 MR. ODOM: If they want to be like California, 13 that's -- more power to them. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just gives them the right to 15 do it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the -- 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's not mandatory. 18 MR. ODOM: That's right, sir. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What setback are they proposing? 20 MR. ODOM: 25 foot. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 25. 22 MR. ODOM: Instead of 50. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What about the name issue? 24 MR. ODOM: Mr. Digges? 25 MR. DIGGES: The name of the subdivision? 9-10-07 34 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 2 MR. DIGGES: We're going to change that. We're 3 going to have -- we didn't find out till about a week ago that 4 the name was in conflict, so we're going to have to pick 5 another name. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: According to Road and Bridge 7 review, you need to change both the name of the subdivision 8 and the name of the road. 9 MR. DIGGES: Yes, both. We're going to change both 10 of those. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You could call it Charlie 12 Digges Road. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Call it whatever you want. 14 Just don't call it Escondidas. 15 MR. ODOM: I would ask the Court to -- with those 16 contingencies, to do that and allow the variance, subject for 17 them to start construction. And the other subject would be 18 that -- that the drainage study and street profiles be 19 reviewed and provided before any construction starts. There 20 can be some clearing and some minor dirt work, but as far as 21 construction, until I get those road profiles and all -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know why we have to act 23 today. It seems like there's a lot of things they don't have 24 done, and we're doing a lot of, you know, conditional things. 25 And -- 9-10-07 35 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you talking about -- 2 you're talking about subdivision name, road name, drainage 3 study -- 4 MR. ODOM: Yes, and that's been submitted. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What else? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Drainage has been submitted? 7 MR. ODOM: Drainage has been submitted, but the 8 engineer has not had time to review all of it. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Engineer hasn't reviewed the 10 drainage study. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Variance on setback. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Variance on setback. I think 13 -- I think I'm with Jon; I think we need to get closer to 14 reality before we start -- 15 MR. ODOM: Have the corrections done? I think so. 16 I think -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. Before we approve it, 18 either preliminarily or finally, I want the name cleared up. 19 I don't want to go through the same thing we went through a 20 month ago or two months ago. 21 MR. ODOM: Okay, sir. 22 MR. DIGGES: Is it possible to act on the variance 23 request today? Is that a possibility? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A variance request for what 25 reason? 9-10-07 36 1 MR. DIGGES: Well, so we know -- we are showing it 2 as 25 feet now on that road. If y'all aren't going to approve 3 it whenever we bring it back for the preliminary, we need to 4 reflect it accurately as it's going to be approved. So, I 5 don't know if y'all want to think about it more. All we're 6 saying is that along Deer Park Lane, where you may choose to 7 increase your road width at some time because of traffic, 8 we're not asking for a variance request; we're leaving it at 9 50 feet. So, in case you have to get more right-of-way, 10 there's no structures that are going to be a problem. But on 11 that short street that's not going to go anywhere within the 12 subdivision, we don't see, you know, why you would have -- or 13 the public would have an interest in trying to control that, 14 and if they wanted to come closer to the -- to the roadway, 15 why they couldn't. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this -- is that portion in 17 the ETJ? Isn't part of this in the ETJ? 18 MR. DIGGES: The road is, like, probably 80 percent 19 in the ETJ and about 20 percent in your-all's -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is the ETJ line written on this 21 map somewhere? 22 MR. DIGGES: Yes. It starts at the -- it would be 23 the west side of the road, of the short cul-de-sac road, and 24 then runs to the east and then southeasterly. 25 MR. ODOM: Come maybe 50, 100 feet up, then you'll 9-10-07 37 1 see the line going across there. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, there it is. Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Now I see it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Lower part is actually the -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: About 60/40, something like 6 that, maybe? About 60 percent/40 percent, something like 7 that? 8 MR. DIGGES: Well, it's quite a bit -- 9 MR. ODOM: 70 to 80 percent is in the ETJ. Really, 10 all we have is sort of the lots -- they have the entrance 11 right there, and that's -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What side? The city of 13 Kerrville? 14 MR. DIGGES: They're on this side, the northern 15 side. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: City of Kerrville has got most of it. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think the -- the issue 18 -- I mean, the cul-de-sac -- the variance issue's going to be 19 more -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: City. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- a city issue. 22 MR. DIGGES: I don't think y'all have building 23 setbacks in the ETJ, do you? 24 MR. ODOM: We do. 25 AUDIENCE: Whatever line they place on -- whatever 9-10-07 38 1 setback line they place on this plat and it's recorded will be 2 setback lines. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But what I'm saying is 4 that that road, all of the variances requested for Lots 2, 6, 5 7, and 8 are all accessed in the ETJ, so we don't need to do a 6 variance, because they're going to handle that part of it. 7 The only part of this subdivision that we're going to handle 8 as a county is going to be this lower part, where no variances 9 are required. 10 MR. DIGGES: That's okay with us, too. (Laughter.) 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Isn't that -- 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, and -- 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Variances are required. 14 MR. ODOM: Remember, I'm going to maintain it. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: See, this is 35 on here, and 16 it goes down to 25 there. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All the way up the road. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: See, here's the 25; it goes 19 around. This part is in the county. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just a very small piece. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the building site of that is 22 going to be up on top, which is in the ETJ. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, access is. I mean, the 25 house may be in the county, but the access point's in the ETJ. 9-10-07 39 1 I guess we could -- I mean, I -- you know, if it makes you 2 comfortable on Lot 3, I wouldn't mind giving a variance. That 3 would be the only lot that may be applicable, in my opinion. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: What I'm hearing, Mr. Digges, is that 5 I think the Court's comfortable with a variance, but they want 6 to see the whole thing as it -- as it's going to get nailed 7 down with the subdivision name change and the road name 8 change. 9 MR. DIGGES: Sure. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Bring it back, and wrap it all up at 11 one time. 12 MR. DIGGES: We'll come back and see -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Looks promising on the variance. 14 MR. DIGGES: Okay, that's great. Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And the drainage study, that 16 there are no issues that are not -- outstanding issues that 17 are not addressed. Correct, Leonard? 18 MR. ODOM: At this point, I -- we don't see any. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, thank you. 20 MR. ODOM: Just reviewing it. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it on that one? 22 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir, that's it. I'm sorry. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 7; consider, 24 discuss, and take appropriate action for revision of Lots 99, 25 100, and 101 of The Horizon, as set forth in Volume 6, Pages 9-10-07 40 1 323 to 326, Plat Records, and set a date for public hearing 2 for the same. 3 MR. ODOM: I want to make sure that's 323. Is that 4 what you said, sir? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 6 MR. ODOM: All right, good. If that correction was 7 made -- we had a typo. Also in your packet here is revisions 8 of Lot 99, 100, and 101 of The Horizon, Volume 6, Pages 323 to 9 326, Precinct 1. The owners wish to make three lots into one. 10 At this time, request a public hearing be set for October 11 22nd, 2007, at 10:05 a.m. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for public 15 hearing on the revision of Lots 99, 100, and 101 of The 16 Horizon, as set forth in Volume 6, Page 323, for October 24th, 17 '07, at 10:05 a.m. Any further question or discussion on that 18 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 19 right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I would like to make a 25 comment. 9-10-07 41 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If -- has anybody been out 3 there to see this? This is going to make a really, really 4 pretty piece of property. It is unbelievably beautiful. 5 These folks are doing the right thing, believe me. It is 6 very, very nice. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a gated community. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Are there any improvements on that 9 property now? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know for sure. I 11 think so. I think there's a -- 12 MR. ODOM: Hang on just a second. I believe -- yes, 13 sir, there is. On 26R, there's a structure up there. Not on 14 25, but on 26R, there's an existing structure. And it's -- it 15 slopes down, comes down the hill. So, the old structure is -- 16 I mean -- when I say "old structure," the existing structure. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Which agenda item are we talking 18 about here? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, we're still on 7. 20 MR. ODOM: Am I on the wrong one? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's the same one. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: 99, 100, and 101. 23 MR. ODOM: I'm sorry. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Are there any improvements on 25 these -- any of those three tracts in The Horizon? 9-10-07 42 1 MR. ODOM: I don't think so. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything more on that particular -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pretty piece of property. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Number 7? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. Thank you. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 8; consider, 9 discuss, and take appropriate action for the revision of Lots 10 25 and 26 of The Horizon, as set forth in Volume 6, Pages 323 11 through 326 of the Plat Records, and set a date for public 12 hearing for the same. 13 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. This is removing of the line 14 between two lots, making one. At this time, we're requesting 15 a public hearing be set for October 22nd, 2007, at 10 a.m. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to set 19 public hearing at 10 a.m. on October the 24th, 2007, for the 20 revision of Lots 25 and 26 of The Horizon, as set forth in 21 Volume 6, Pages 323 to 336. Any further question or 22 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify 23 by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9-10-07 43 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 3 to Item 10, if we might. Consider, discuss, and take 4 appropriate action on Kerr County investment policy. 5 MS. HARGIS: I think all of you have a copy. I 6 actually handed out another copy this morning. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this different than the other 8 one? 9 MS. HARGIS: No. I just wanted to make sure you had 10 one this morning. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I got to find it. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very well done, good and 13 faithful servant. 14 MS. HARGIS: Again, mostly -- mostly mirrors the 15 Public Fund Investment law. If you would like to include some 16 additional investments that are not here, you know, I'll be 17 glad to -- there are other investments, but they're -- I don't 18 consider them -- you know, we can do foreign bonds now. I 19 don't think we want to consider something like that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to stay with the law 21 explicitly. 22 MS. HARGIS: I think simple is better. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And the Treasurer, who is 24 the constitutional investment officer, is in complete support 25 of this new policy? 9-10-07 44 1 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 2 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. Yes, I am. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Merely because we authorize 4 additional investments does not mean we would be required or 5 otherwise compelled to invest in those particular investment 6 products, does it? 7 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. It just gives you the 8 capability, so you don't have to change your policy as often. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: I gather from what you're telling us 10 is that worst case or best case scenario, or as the case may 11 be, you can't see us going with any investment products which 12 are outside of those within the authorized investments as set 13 forth in this policy? 14 MS. HARGIS: Not at this time, unless there's 15 legislation -- there is additional legislation that comes up 16 with a -- an investment that I think is fairly safe. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, of course, at that point in 18 time, we'd be required to look at the policy as we are, what, 19 once a year, plus anytime the legislature meets, anyway. 20 MS. HARGIS: Right. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But even though we're 23 required only to review it once a year, we can change it, or 24 the Judge? 25 MS. HARGIS: The Judge. 9-10-07 45 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval of the 2 investment policy as presented by the Auditor and the County 3 Treasurer. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to approve 6 the proposed investment policy. Any further question or 7 discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a question. 9 Depositories. At what point do we -- do we name the county 10 depository? 11 MS. HARGIS: You sent out an RFP, I think -- I want 12 to say two and a half years ago, and it's a four-year 13 agreement. I think that's pretty much Court policy. I would 14 suggest that we -- I would like to do it now, but we can't 15 because we do have a contract with them, but I think you need 16 to do one at least every three years because of -- of the new 17 banking products that are out there. You need to be sure 18 they're competitive, that they offer us the products that we 19 can be more productive with. I'm not necessarily sure that we 20 have that now. I've learned over time that sometimes the -- 21 even though we don't necessarily always like the bigger 22 banking institutions, they offer us services that increase our 23 productivity, perhaps even take the place of an employee, so 24 sometimes it's good to look at that, at least every three 25 years. But this is a four-year contract, so we really can't 9-10-07 46 1 do anything until next year. Probably the end of next year, 2 we'll start looking at RFP's. That's a pretty long process. 3 It's -- I would say it's about a six-month process, because 4 you need to send out the RFP's; it takes them a while to get 5 them back to you because they are so detailed. Rex and I will 6 have a fun time going over them. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a four-year contract that 8 we're on now. Did not the Legislature recently authorize 9 those contracts to be two-year contracts? 10 MS. HARGIS: That is correct. And -- but I don't 11 know that we can get out of this one now, because it was a 12 four-year contract. But now they can't make you do more than 13 a two-year contract, so that's good. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When we get to that point, this 15 is just a -- make sure we work closely also with the Human 16 Resources Department because of payroll deductions and things 17 of that nature that are kind of all related with this. And I 18 recall some problems in that area, or some costs and things 19 with our current depository that we didn't really address last 20 time, 'cause we really didn't do many direct deposits. 21 MS. HARGIS: That's one of the services you want 22 them to provide to you free, because you're giving them your 23 business. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 25 MS. HARGIS: Keep in mind, you have a really large 9-10-07 47 1 book of business, so you want to try to negotiate those kind 2 of things. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. That's just something 4 I'm bringing up, that we need to keep that on the burner as 5 well. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Don't our depository 7 agreements run on a calendar year, not a budget year? 8 MS. HARGIS: You know, to be honest with you, I 9 haven't seen an agreement. I think you signed it -- I don't 10 know. I really don't know. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion on 13 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 14 your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 19 to Item 11; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to hire 20 Patterson and Company as investment advisers for Kerr County. 21 MS. HARGIS: We all just got a copy of this. I just 22 gave a copy of this contract to Rex, so if you're not 23 comfortable approving this yet, I would understand that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we ought to defer. We 25 can certainly give the County Attorney time to review it. 9-10-07 48 1 MS. HARGIS: 'Cause I just sent it to him Friday; he 2 may not have even opened it up. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He had some other issues on 4 Friday he was working on, I think. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. However, the amount 6 of money that would be required to -- for this contract is in 7 place in the Auditor's budget? 8 MS. HARGIS: Yes. I say that with a broad brush; 9 I'd better check it to make sure. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, you'd better. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything more on Item 11? Let's go, 12 then, to our 10:00 o'clock timed item. It's just a bit past 13 that now. Item 9, raise or build a new high water bridge on 14 Town Creek Road and old Harper Road to the Silver Saddle 15 Housing Subdivision. Mr. Roy Lee Graham asked that this item 16 be placed on the agenda. Come forward, Mr. Graham. If you 17 wouldn't mind, give us your address too, please, sir. 18 MR. GRAHAM: I live on 1605 Muleshoe, which is in 19 the Horseshoe Oaks Addition on Town Creek Road. Between 20 Morris Road and the Old Harper Highway is where our addition's 21 at. Silver Saddle and Muleshoe are the two streets involved. 22 We have six other houses involved in the same cutoff area. 23 When Town Creek gets up, we're marooned. We can't get any 24 ambulance; we can't get any mail. We don't get any 25 newspapers. You don't get anything. Since January 1 this 9-10-07 49 1 year, on the paper that I gave y'all, we'd been trapped in 2 seven times. The very day that I brought the paper up here 3 was the eighth time that we was trapped, 'cause I couldn't get 4 back out. I brought a little -- now, I won't take up much of 5 y'all's time, but we did a little survey there, and in our 6 additions, we have 41 homes that are affected by this. 7 There's a total of 105 persons that live in the 41 homes in 8 that area. 9 We have a new bridge that's been put in -- or a new 10 culvert that was put in earlier this year. It's been washed 11 out four times. It's got one tunnel, 4 feet high. The 12 engineers that put it in, they did a pretty nice job, except 13 they didn't put the whistle in the same direction that the 14 river flows, so any trash that comes down blocks it off. The 15 water goes over it. It backs all the way up to the next 16 bridge, which is 1 foot high. We can't get out. On Lemos 17 Street and Town Creek, there's six 4-foot whistles, and the 18 water gets over it. It runs down pretty quick there, but it 19 doesn't run down on our end. On the -- on the upper end on 20 the Old Harper Highway and Town Creek is the 1-foot high 21 bridge. We have a 5 and a half foot elevation from our level 22 to the level on the Old Harper Road. If we had a bridge that 23 went straight across there, we could get in and out. 24 As it is now, if anybody gets sick in there -- and I 25 have how many elderly people is on here too, but I don't think 9-10-07 50 1 y'all are interested in that. But you couldn't get an 2 ambulance in there. We have one way out, to drive through Ed 3 Higgins' pasture and go out on I-10, but you must have a 4 four-wheel drive truck to do that if it's rained. And, like I 5 said, eight times this year, we've been blocked in. In the 6 past -- that's this year. In the past, we've been blocked in 7 three, four, five days at a time that we can't get out. We 8 have a bunch of people that work in there, need to get to 9 their jobs. To get to their jobs, they drive up to the end of 10 Silver Saddle, walk out to the interstate through the mud, and 11 have somebody come pick them up and take them to work. Some 12 of us are too old to do that. 13 And just -- our request is that if the -- the bridge 14 at Morris Road and Town Creek, you know, has nothing to do 15 with it. It's fine like it is, because we know we can't cross 16 it when it gets up. They can't come in and put up "Road 17 Closed" signs. We had some inside there that I personally 18 would put up for our addition, but the County or somebody's 19 taken them out. I don't have any signs in there any more. 20 And usually when it rains, I get up about 4 o'clock and go put 21 the signs out. We have one family in there that will try to 22 cross that water; I don't care how deep it is, and I go down 23 there and sit with my phone on 911 watching him, because he's 24 going to wash off. He's got a little, bitty Ford Focus, and 25 two kids, that they go across there with water up on the 9-10-07 51 1 doors. You know, somebody's going to get hurt. Somebody's 2 going to have to have a -- we don't even have a place we could 3 land the helicopter, Air Life, if it came in. 4 Our subdivision is -- the houses are in a perfect 5 spur, is what it amounts to. And we just would like to 6 address maybe getting the bridge on the west end of Town Creek 7 raised to a -- to a level. And if we had four or five of 8 those 4- to 6-foot culverts, and then the bridge go across 9 them, I think that we'd be able to get in and out at all 10 times. And I know y'all have to do a survey and -- and all of 11 that, but as most of y'all up there know, I've worked in 12 construction -- road construction basically all of my life, 13 you know, heavy equipment and everything, and I know what it 14 takes to build a road and a bridge and all of that. But 15 safety-wise, we're in jeopardy over there. And that's really 16 about all I've got to say. Some of the owners of the homes 17 are here. You know, I don't know that y'all want to hear from 18 them. I think I gave y'all all of the statistics that -- that 19 I can give you. 20 And I know that y'all are going to have to do a 21 survey and a study of it, but we're -- we're in trouble right 22 now. We don't usually have this much rain in Kerr County, but 23 who says when it's going to stop? This last weekend, when I 24 was down here on Tuesday, it only rained 2 inches. Road's 25 closed. Some -- most of the people had already gone out to 9-10-07 52 1 work that morning, the ones that work. They couldn't get 2 home. You know, you have to wait till 5:00, 6:00, 7 o'clock 3 at night for the water to go down so you can cross it. And 4 we're really afraid that some of the elderly's going to have 5 problems and we can't get an ambulance to us. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Graham, I believe that it 7 is one -- it's one of the duties of government to see that you 8 have a safe ingress-egress to your home and those kinds of 9 things. This gentleman driving through water with his 10 children needs to be taken out behind the barn, have a little 11 hill country talking to. But I think the first step toward 12 the remedy to this thing is you and your group sitting down 13 with Mr. Odom, and let -- and let Mr. Odom come up with the 14 best -- it may not be this bridge that you're thinking. It 15 may be something better. Now, I don't know, but, you know, if 16 you sit down, have a little brainstorm, I think reasonable 17 people can sit down and work something out. 18 MR. GRAHAM: I understand that. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you agree to that? 20 MR. GRAHAM: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Odom, would you agree to 22 that? 23 MR. ODOM: Oh, of course. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. Y'all are 25 exited. 9-10-07 53 1 MR. GRAHAM: I have a copy of the names of people 2 and the houses and stuff in there, if the Court would like to 3 have it. I only have one copy of it. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I would. 5 MR. GRAHAM: I just didn't have enough time to get 6 any more copies made. But I do have one copy of that; y'all 7 can make some more, or -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Grinstead can make copies of 10 that, Mr. Graham. 11 MR. GRAHAM: Thank you. And that's all, gentlemen. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: It seems that the start point is 13 to -- to assess the situation and see what the best solution 14 is. 15 MR. GRAHAM: Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's what Commissioner 17 Baldwin is suggesting here. 18 MR. GRAHAM: And I -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: That's step one. 20 MR. GRAHAM: I and several of the neighbors will be 21 glad to visit with -- and anything, and help with the survey 22 or anything that they want to do. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Super. 24 MR. GRAHAM: But, you know, I'd like to express, you 25 know, that I do know road construction and things like that. 9-10-07 54 1 JUDGE TINLEY: The new Holdsworth thing that comes 2 through there, that hasn't provided any benefit? 3 MR. GRAHAM: We can't get to it. We're not going to 4 have access to it. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 6 MR. GRAHAM: We're not going to have access to it. 7 The bridge is beyond Morris Road, and there's no access from 8 Town Creek to get to it, period. We can't get there. And on 9 this side of the access bridge -- or the bridge going into the 10 new addition, there's a gully that's about 35 feet deep and 11 about 50 yards wide that's been washed in there over the 12 years, and you can't cross it, not unless somebody built a 13 bridge on it. And our only other alternative is -- and I know 14 the interstate's not going to give us an exit. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No. 16 MR. GRAHAM: I haven't gone -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Don't see that happening. 18 MR. GRAHAM: I haven't gone to them yet. But 19 that -- I won't take up any more of y'all's time. I 20 appreciate y'all. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you know Mr. Odom? He's 22 at the door. At the door. 23 MR. GRAHAM: Yeah, okay. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Say something nice about the 25 Aggies. 9-10-07 55 1 MR. GRAHAM: Okay. I got a couple good jokes. 2 (Laughter.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That may not be what he's looking 4 for. 5 MR. ODOM: This bridge sounds like a 3- to 10-year 6 project. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's Aggie engineering. 8 MR. GRAHAM: They won. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Graham. 10 MR. GRAHAM: They won their football game. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Any member of the Court have anything 12 further on that particular issue? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Here's your list. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move forward, then, to Item 12. 15 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to establish 16 the costs for obtaining a copy of the FY 2007-'08 Kerr County 17 budget from the County Clerk. Ms. Pieper? She was here a 18 moment ago. 19 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: There she is. I think, 21 traditionally, rather than go on the dollar per page, what 22 we've done is provide $20 or $25 a copy. Is that what we've 23 done? 24 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9-10-07 56 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Was it $20 or $25? 2 MS. PIEPER: Y'all have done it both. Y'all have 3 done either one of them. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: See how good my memory is, 5 Commissioner? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What do you recommend? 8 MS. PIEPER: $25. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we set the 10 cost of receiving a copy of the budget at $25. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 13 indicated. Any question or discussion on the motion? All in 14 favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move to 19 Item 13; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 20 further discuss new policy, fee schedule, and booking agent 21 for the Kerr County Exhibition Center and rescind all previous 22 orders pertaining to the same. Commissioner Letz? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Even though I have some more -- 24 I think it's a little bit unclear still in some points, I 25 think we're at the point that we understand what we're trying 9-10-07 57 1 to do. And I don't want to make a motion quite yet; I want to 2 hear any other opinions, but my thought is we approve it, do a 3 little bit more tweaking on it, get the verbiage so it's 4 not -- it's more clear, and get on down the road. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I kind of agree with that. 6 I think there are some opportunities to clarify some things, 7 and I see no need for Number 4, based on what's contained in 8 Number 5, so maybe we need to do a little bit more tweaking. 9 But you're right, we should move forward on it. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll second it, if that's what 11 we're waiting on. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion, then, to 13 approve the revised Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center booking 14 procedures and rental rates, and rescind all previous orders 15 related to this issue. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 18 indicated. Any further question or discussion on the motion? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One comment, Judge. Who -- 20 who do you want to give these suggested revisions to? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think Ms. Grinstead. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Our court administrator, Jody 24 Grinstead. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: As booking agent, are you speaking? 9-10-07 58 1 Is that part of your motion, or is that a separate item? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. This is being worked on, as 3 you know, primarily by -- I think Ms. Hyde was doing it, and I 4 think we're at the point it can really -- I mean, we need to 5 transfer it up to this office. It's not a Human Resources 6 issue; it's something we're -- you know, that needs to come up 7 to Ms. Grinstead's office at this point. And I don't see that 8 the booking agent issue is on the agenda. Or is it? Oh, it 9 does say booking agent. Well, we might discuss that too in a 10 minute. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And, Ms. Uecker, you had some 12 comment you wanted to make? 13 MS. UECKER: Just a clarification. Several months 14 ago, I came as a board -- director on a board for HILCO 15 requesting an amount for their annual meeting that I think is 16 in January or February. The date's been reserved. But, you 17 know, I was told to come back after some of this stuff had 18 been done with the booking and rates. I don't know what 19 you're -- what you're looking at. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What were you requesting back 21 then? To -- this is the one with the chairs? No, that's a 22 different one. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't know. This was -- she 24 was asking for what the rate -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Would be. 9-10-07 59 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What was it, $160, what you 2 were requesting? 3 MS. UECKER: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: To have that meeting. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So this would just be a use of 6 the Exhibit Hall? 7 MS. UECKER: Exhibit Hall and the chairs and tables 8 for the meeting. Based on the fact that this credit union is 9 owned by the county employees, state employees, and the city 10 employees. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that would be -- 12 probably have to come back on another motion and look at some 13 of the -- what the discount is to some of the agencies, but 14 this would qualify as a 50 percent discount, which would get 15 us pretty close. That would be, like, 175 plus the cost of 16 the chairs. 17 MS. UECKER: Which is fine. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me -- let me -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You could have the Union 20 Church and have it for $100, instead of having it at the Ag 21 Barn. Of course, you -- 22 MS. UECKER: I don't think the Union Church is big 23 enough -- is big enough for us. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. How many people are you 25 talking about? 9-10-07 60 1 MS. UECKER: Between 150 and 175. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 3 MS. UECKER: Maybe 200. So, do I need to come back, 4 then? Or put it back on the agenda? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't think -- that's not 6 really a good agenda item for what you're asking. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to -- probably at our 8 next agenda, we need to go down through the list of various 9 things and assign those that use on a regular basis, what the 10 discount will be. 11 MS. UECKER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And so we'll look at that at the 13 next -- Jody will be preparing that. 14 MS. UECKER: Was that a yes, I need to get it back 15 on the agenda? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You need to come back -- you 17 don't need to get it back on the agenda; you just need to make 18 sure that Jody has what you want on the agenda. 19 MS. UECKER: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll look at it at that point. 21 MS. UECKER: 'Cause we use it every year, just that 22 one time a year. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Commissioner, Number 8, I 25 think, is the illustration and the dollar amount. I think we 9-10-07 61 1 need to take another look at it. The illustration talks about 2 an event costing $1,000, and we're talking in this Number 8 3 about the ability to roll -- roll your deposit forward. It 4 seems to me that you have to put the $500 deposit up, and when 5 you come -- it comes time for your first event, to pay for 6 that first event, $1,000. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And then the $500 continues 9 to roll until the very last time that you do it, at which time 10 you use it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That $500. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: $500. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think it's not properly 15 stated. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've already noted and worked 17 that one out. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Ms. Grinstead, here's some 19 changes. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Question on the -- on the reservation 21 form where the various fees -- items and fees are noted. It 22 was my understanding, from the discussion that we had 23 previously on this item, that the practice ride and practice 24 rope were coming out of there. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think so. 9-10-07 62 1 MS. HYDE: We kind of talked about that, that the 2 facility can be used by participants of the rented event per 3 their authorization, but if those increase the time that 4 people have to be there to staff it, then shouldn't we charge 5 them for it? For example, if we have to come in earlier 6 because they're going to be practice roping during -- for the 7 roping event, although they've rented the facility, these 8 people are going to come in and use it, and we've got to come 9 in and open it up early or late. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm lost a little bit. But, 11 Judge, to get -- if we -- let me add to my motion. That 12 authorizes myself and Commissioner Oehler to make minor 13 changes that don't change -- I mean, of wording and a few 14 things of that nature. I think we clearly understand the 15 intent of the new policy, and that we can work through these, 16 and we'll just, you know, proceed that way, or we'll never get 17 this thing approved. I agree with you; I thought we had taken 18 that out, but -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, the practice ride 20 definitely needs to come out. Practice roping session, they 21 could actually come and rent the thing under -- under our 22 policy of rental for half a day, which would be four hours. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I thought she was 24 talking about. I thought she was talking about practicing for 25 a rented event. 9-10-07 63 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. Well, it's -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're going to have a roping 3 tonight at 9:00, but I'm going to go in there at 2:00 to warm 4 up. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that's what she's 7 saying. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We don't want to do that. 9 MR. BOLLIER: What we have is people coming in 10 during the day when this arena is set up, and they want to 11 come in at 8 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, and ride during 12 the day, just a practice ride. You know, they may just want 13 to come in and work their horse out for an hour or two. Well, 14 in that case, they have been doing that before, and charging 15 them $20 a horse -- or $20 an hour for one horse. Well, you 16 know, then it's become a problem because of the liability 17 issue there. And, so, like, if we're going to allow -- if 18 we're going to allow people to come in and stay, use the arena 19 for a half a day, which -- but as long as they have the 20 liability, have the insurance, use it for a half a day, I 21 would like to see that they're not -- if we have O.T.R.A., 22 which is on Friday and Saturday, I would like to see that 23 arena where these people can't come in on that Thursday, 24 because that Thursday is when we have to finalize that arena 25 and get that arena worked up and looking good for that Friday. 9-10-07 64 1 So if, for any reason, you're going to allow any of that to 2 happen, I would like to see that on a Monday, Tuesday, or a 3 Wednesday, unless we have some other event in there. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that needs to be worked 5 out on the booking side. I think we take the practice rides 6 and roping off of this altogether. If they want to rent the 7 facility for an afternoon, they can. The issue you're talking 8 about, Tim, is really related more to availability and 9 booking, and that needs to be coordinated through the booking 10 process. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And they need to provide the 12 insurance policy to do that. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Absolutely. And that might 14 necessitate an additional entry on the indoor arena. This 15 shows for a full day only, except from midnight till 6 a.m. 16 You probably need to insert a half a day -- 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: -- item right after that first one. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And this does not -- this also 21 needs to be understood; this does not apply to 4-H, who uses 22 that thing with -- uses that for that purpose a lot of times 23 as an event, even though it's a practice, when they can't use 24 the outdoor arena. And they have leaders; they have their own 25 insurance policy, so it does not apply to them using it for 9-10-07 65 1 practice, as long as it's a sanctioned event with adult 2 leaders present. They need to be sure and let the booking 3 agent know that they're going to need it so that it doesn't 4 conflict with something that's already booked. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We've got a motion and a 6 second. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: God, what was the motion? 8 Does anybody remember? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion was to approve it, with the 10 authorization to Commissioners Letz and Oehler to make 11 modifications or adjustments to clean up the discrepancies, 12 and to address the issues that we've put before the Court here 13 today and on previous occasions. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Minor changes. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Minor, yes. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: You like that? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, man. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion? 19 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 20 hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. We'll move to 25 Item 14; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action -- 9-10-07 66 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wait, wait, wait, wait. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Want to make a motion on booking 4 agent stuff? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, yeah. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: We remain on Item 13. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move that we change the 8 booking agent to be Jody Grinstead at the Commissioners Court 9 and Judge's office, and that she be our new booking agent. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And that the previous one be 12 assigned to the County Extension Office. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Exclusively? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Exclusively. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Compensation for 16 Ms. Grinstead? Compensation? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's built into the budget. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Shouldn't it be in the 19 motion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it's in the budget. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: It's not in the motion. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Apparently not. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But -- what was the -- I think 24 the portion about Extension Office needs to be deleted. 25 That's not on the agenda. I think all we need to talk about 9-10-07 67 1 is the booking agent only, so I think we need to focus on that 2 point only. If there needs to be a future agenda item related 3 to that, we can put it on next time. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or comments on the 6 motion? All in favor -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And that that be effective 8 immediately. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, signify 10 by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Now we'll move to Item 14. Consider, 15 discuss, and take appropriate action to appoint a new 16 constable for Precinct Number 1. Commissioner Baldwin? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir. Did -- did 18 y'all get a copy of the resume? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of the one person that -- we 21 only had one person that showed interest. We had several 22 phone calls from a couple of people that lived in other 23 precincts and that kind of thing that wanted to be the 24 constable, but didn't -- didn't fit our -- didn't fit the 25 program. So, we have one in here, and I might say in my 9-10-07 68 1 opinion that it ain't going to get any better than this. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Looks overqualified to me. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He is overqualified. He is 4 a -- he is a master peace officer, which is the highest level 5 of peace officer you can go. And, of course, the position not 6 only -- the constable being probably the oldest law 7 enforcement officer on earth -- in the history of the earth, 8 but it's -- is that not a fact? Yeah, that's the truth. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Talking about the person? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I'm fixing to get to the 11 person. No, the position -- the office of constable is the 12 oldest law enforcement office in the history of the earth. 13 And this particular person kind of fits that very well. 14 (Laughter.) But the only question I have at this point, do 15 you gentlemen have anybody that you want to recommend for this 16 position? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm just ecstatic that this 19 individual applied. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I am too. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm not. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm excited. So I move that 23 we appoint, for the unexpired term of Constable Precinct 1, 24 the honorable John N. Lavender. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9-10-07 69 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 2 indicated. Any question or discussion? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have -- 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This should lower the 5 Sheriff's budget a little, being as he's going to be moving. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Wrong. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Because he'll be -- the person 8 replacing him will be coming in at a lower level. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It is a possibility. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's great stuff, isn't it? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We'll get to borrow that 12 from the Sheriff's budget later. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, if this is 14 approved, we need to say to Mr. Lavender, you need to get a 15 bond. And it's my understanding that you can do that in an 16 hour or half a day or whatever, and we want to get that 17 approved as soon as possible so he'll be a legal -- whatever. 18 He'll be a legal constable. And I assume that Mr. Lavender 19 will find someone -- his judge, the newly appointed judge in 20 J.P. -- in Precinct 1 -- to swear him in and those kinds of 21 things. So, it may be that at least three of us come back in 22 in three days to approve this bond. I see you're thinking, 23 and that worries me just a little bit. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the question I have, 25 Commissioner, you said for the unexpired term. I think the 9-10-07 70 1 law provides that the appointment can be until the next 2 general election. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: And if it's -- now, if it happens to 5 be a -- the majority of that term has already been served, 6 that will be that time, but if it's not, it'll come sooner. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine. I'm just 8 worried about the man's bond and being a legal peace officer. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So if he goes out and gets a 11 bond, we can come back in here in a few days, at least three 12 of us, and approve that thing? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Certainly. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. Yes, sir, can do. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I got a motion and a second. Any 17 further question or discussion on that motion? All in favor 18 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's take 23 us about a 15-minute recess. 24 (Recess taken from 10:30 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.) 25 - - - - - - - - - - 9-10-07 71 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we 2 might. We were in recess. The clerk brought it to my 3 attention at the break that with regard to Items 5, 7, and 8, 4 that the record may reflect that those public hearings are set 5 on October the 24th, when, in truth and in fact, they should 6 be October the 22nd, which is our second regular meeting in 7 October. 8 MS. HARGIS: You mean September? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: I just wanted to be sure that -- 10 MS. HARGIS: September? 11 JUDGE TINLEY: -- I know I wrote down the 24th of 12 October. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: October. I wrote down the 22nd. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what I heard. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: On one of them. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I wrote down the 22nd on all of 18 them. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the intent of all those motions 20 was to set it on the second meeting -- regular meeting in 21 October at 10 a.m., 10:05 a.m., and 10:10 a.m. on October the 22 22nd. Is that not correct? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Let's move on, then. 25 Item 15; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on 9-10-07 72 1 proposed -- any proposed changes for the FY '07-'08 budget. I 2 put this on as kind of a catch-all, primarily for the Court's 3 benefit, and not to open the floodgates for others. But let's 4 see where that leads us. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I have one issue 6 that's going to open the floodgates to others, but I want to 7 wait till Ms. Uecker's out of the way -- or Ms. Uecker takes 8 care of all of her business. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, do we want to roll that 10 particular item to the end of the meeting -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tonight. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- and -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Late night. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- and come back to it later? Are we 15 going to be spending some time on those items? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I think -- I think my 17 issue's going to take a few minutes. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Five minutes. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, the reason I mention 21 that is that the Auditor's going to have to leave us here in 22 about less than an hour, and I wanted to -- I wanted to be 23 sure and get her in tune with whatever we're doing here. Both 24 that item, and then there's several other items; Items 16, 17, 25 and 18, I believe. 9-10-07 73 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's go. 3 MS UECKER: Okay. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: What do you got? 5 MS. UECKER: In my initial request for my budget, I 6 had requested a one-step merit for my chief deputy, and a -- 7 an increase for another position, and I think the notes were 8 in -- in my request. We discussed these, Ms. Hyde and myself, 9 and came up with some documentation on it. I see that it's 10 not in the proposed budget on those salaries, and I just want 11 to see, you know, what the Court's position is on it, see if I 12 can get those merits put in there. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tell me again. One-step 14 merit for your chief deputy? 15 MS. UECKER: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And what was the other one? 17 MS. UECKER: The other one is -- and I don't know if 18 you want names or not. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 20 MS. UECKER: Okay. The other one was to -- it's not 21 an increase; it's just a -- increased duties, to move one 22 person from a 15 to a 16 at the same -- at the same step. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that one -- I mean, I 24 think that people need to be paid for the job that they're 25 doing, and if you and Ms. Hyde are in agreement that this is a 9-10-07 74 1 Step 16, that needs to be a 16. That change just needs to be 2 made. That's not really -- I mean, it's obviously a budget 3 impact, but that has to be done, in my mind. 4 MS. UECKER: Okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: From a -- from a monetary standpoint, 6 is it an even wash? Or are you going to, like, a 15-4 to a 7 16-4? In which case, it's going to be an increase. 8 MS. UECKER: 15-4 to a 16-4. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, there will be a monetary 10 increase -- 11 MS. UECKER: Yes. Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- on that one. And on the 13 merit, I'm a little -- I mean, I don't recall -- I don't know 14 what the Judge's direction was, early on, on merit increases 15 this year. I don't know. I mean, some -- you know, I don't 16 know if he just left it up to the -- I remember you asking, 17 but I just don't know what his guidance was to people that 18 prepare the budgets. 19 MS. UECKER: I thought I'd better come back and ask, 20 because in going through the budget process -- and I know that 21 there have been some granted based on job increases and 22 performance, so I thought, okay -- I stay confused about do we 23 give merit increases or don't we, every year. And then, if we 24 -- if we say we don't, there end up being some. So, the only 25 way I'm going to know is if I come up here and ask. 9-10-07 75 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's what I -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: For clarification purposes, my -- my 3 guidance to the elected officials and department heads was 4 that any personnel matters, other than those mandated by 5 existing policy; for example, longevity and educational 6 issues, should be addressed to the Court. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 8 MS. UECKER: And that's why I'm here. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And, so, have we -- have we 10 authorized any other merit raises to chief deputies? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't recall any. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, this would be first -- 13 not the only one, but the first one. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't recall any others that we 15 have. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, this would be the first 17 one, then, of probably several. But -- and you said that you 18 and Ms. Hyde had -- came up with some reasons -- or I can't 19 remember what your words were. 20 MS. UECKER: Justification. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Justification for it. And 22 what is that? 23 MS. UECKER: Well, my chief deputy's been with me a 24 long time. She's stepped in since I lost the last chief, and 25 has gone over and above to do even the job beyond chief 9-10-07 76 1 deputy. She's given time to the County on weekends and on 2 evenings and, you know, we've discussed stuff that has to be 3 done, plus she's also my bookkeeper. So, in addition to being 4 chief deputy, she's also the bookkeeper and has all of these 5 intricate reports to do, plus has taken over some of the 6 disciplinary duties from me, and has just gone above and 7 beyond the call. And even my -- the rest of my staff says, 8 "Boy, we need to do something for poor Robbin." You know, 9 she's -- "We just really need to do something for her; she's 10 working way too hard." And, you know, and I keep -- I'm 11 having to push her to take vacations. She says, "Well, I 12 don't have time. I got this report to get out and I got that 13 to get out, and I got that to get out." So -- plus she has -- 14 well, this has nothing to do with it, but this -- this job 15 comes first, but I know she does have another job that she has 16 been putting -- you know, telling them that she can't do 17 because she has to stay here and do some things at night. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When -- has she had a merit 19 increase in the last few years? 20 MS. UECKER: No. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Seems to me like if you 22 justify it that way, I can't see any fault with it. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can't -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't either. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think we ought to do it. We 9-10-07 77 1 ought to reward people that are going above and beyond the 2 call of duty on their jobs, because we -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is a one-step merit 4 increase? 5 MS. UECKER: Well, it would move her from a 19-8 to 6 a 19-9. She's been a county employee for -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 25 percent? 8 MS. UECKER: 2.5. 9 MS. HYDE: 2.5. 10 MS. UECKER: And she's -- the other thing is, she's 11 kind of taken it on herself to be, like, the computer program 12 problem fixer before we go to John, or before we go to the 13 Software Group. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think you've sold us already. 15 You can quit selling. 16 MS. HYDE: The good news is that when we put these 17 in, because it's a chief deputy, and we -- one of the things 18 that she and I discussed heartily -- how's that? -- we 19 discussed very deeply, was that there are position schedules 20 and there is descriptions for these folks. However, comma, 21 this one has got -- has now raised that bar. So, before we 22 start talking about others getting one, they're going to have 23 to hit that bar as well. You see what I'm saying? Because 24 this person is doing the bookkeeping, this person is doing 25 software maintenance, this person is -- is their go-to, so 9-10-07 78 1 that allows us to add some things to her. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This one has hit the bar 3 with respect to the job she does in this department? Or has 4 raised the bar for all chief deputies? 5 MS. HYDE: I think it's raised the bar. Before 6 someone can come in and ask for another merit increase, then 7 this bar is sitting there now. Software maintenance, 8 bookkeeping, and -- I mean, I know that in the County Clerk's 9 office, they're working towards that as well, so that the 10 chief deputies are truly getting better at a spot that if, God 11 forbid, somebody resigns, retires, whatever, -- 12 MS. UECKER: Dies. 13 MS. HYDE: -- those chief deputies can step in. I 14 didn't say that; you did. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do we have a current policy 16 that sets chief deputies at a certain step and grade? 17 MS. HYDE: No. What you have right now, we have -- 18 MS. UECKER: At 19. 19 MS. HYDE: -- a precedent where they've been set at 20 19's forever. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Essentially, what you're saying, 22 then, is this increase is -- is as much based upon an increase 23 in duties, of job description. 24 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And there may be others coming 9-10-07 79 1 down the road. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which is what it ought to 3 be. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. I mean, I don't have 5 any problem with it. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't either. 7 MS. UECKER: Okay. And then the other one is -- 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Don't push too far. 9 MS. UECKER: Well, I'm just clarifying. 10 MS. HYDE: The other one is okay. 11 MS. UECKER: Thank you. I'll shut up. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We ready to move on to the 13 next item? Or does anybody on the Court have something to 14 offer? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I want to talk about 16 the Sheriff's budget, oil and gas -- no, gas and oil. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That was -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Stand up there and tell me. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I mentioned this to the Judge, 20 too. The only thing that concerns me on there, under the 21 original budget, I requested 130,000 for the year to do 22 everything, all included. The Judge put it back down to 115. 23 I got -- and that's gas and oil for all the cars. I got the 24 Maxey Energy bill Friday, which was 10 for one month, and I'm 25 afraid if you multiply that out by 12 months, that's 120 9-10-07 80 1 before you make any oil changes. And I just think it may need 2 to go back up, unless y'all want to just see what happens. 3 But all I've heard all weekend is gas prices are going up. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: What's your projected amount that you 5 will use this particular fiscal year? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This coming? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: This existing year. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This existing. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The projected estimated amount. I 10 don't have mine in front of me. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What they had projected, end of 12 year, and -- but, see, this was as of March 31st is what I 13 had, okay? Was 94,000. But that was as of March, projected 14 end of the year. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My feeling, Rusty, on this is 16 that we budget for 100 percent staffing in all departments. 17 You obviously have the largest staffing, and the reality is 18 that you will not be 100 percent staffed throughout the year, 19 which means that you always have a little bit of cushion in 20 your budget, and I think that that cushion is there. And, you 21 know, I will note that we're really tight on the oil and gas, 22 and it may -- there may need to be a budget amendment to shift 23 some funds. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Which is fine, if that's the 25 way -- just looking at an average of 10,000 a month, it was 9-10-07 81 1 automatically going to be over what we budgeted. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's just because of the nature 3 of your department. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's before you do any 5 oil changes. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I understand. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Jailer salaries. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's it. Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That's all you got? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I still have -- I have 13 some budget concerns in some areas. And, of course, I'll pick 14 on the Sheriff first; then I'll go to the rest of them, but 15 it's not really picking. I just think that, you know, there's 16 some things that -- a lot of people I'd like to have a -- have 17 a Tahoe, drive around town too, and I go in a lot of rough 18 places, but, you know, I would -- I'd go along with one Tahoe 19 and four Crown Vics. I know we've discussed this over and 20 over again, and I'm probably the only one that's -- that's 21 fought this thing throughout. He has an Expedition right now, 22 and I would say that could become part of the fleet for the -- 23 the beginning of the fleet for the other deputies that he 24 thinks needs one -- the Tahoes. And I -- I could go along 25 with doing one of these a year, but not four a year, and then 9-10-07 82 1 next year we do four more, and then I can see coming down the 2 road, and what that's doing is expending a lot more money over 3 the long haul, as well as the gas and fuel and tires and 4 everything else, 'cause they're not, I don't believe, as cheap 5 to operate as the Victoria, and sure cost more. They cost 6 25 percent more. So, I'm -- I'm not willing to go along with 7 the four requested. I'm -- you know, and that's just me. And 8 I -- I just -- that's the way I feel about it, and so I'll 9 throw it out on the table and see if y'all are still hung 10 on -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, you mentioned they're 12 25 percent more. Actually, that's not correct. They're a 13 third more. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, a third more. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Because you base it on the existing 16 cost; that's going to be amortized over three years. You got 17 the same cost over four years. So, based upon your original 18 investment, that's a one-third increase. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's true. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: So -- 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So, I can't -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a pretty good jump. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's a big jump, and you're 24 going to have an extra year's financing, and what's going to 25 happen is you're going to have them worn out about the same 9-10-07 83 1 time that they are paid off. And I think we're getting an 2 extra year or two or three out of Crown Vics after they're 3 paid off, and I think that's another way to look at it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean, I agree with 5 part of what you said. I don't think we need a full fleet of 6 Tahoes. I think that it makes sense to have one per shift. 7 And future years -- next year I'm not in favor of Tahoes. 8 Now, if we were to do -- you know, I could go two this year 9 and two next year. I don't have a big problem. But I think 10 it does make sense, from the safety standpoint of the deputies 11 and for the taxpayers, to have some four-wheel drive vehicles 12 out on the road. And, you know, I think that having one per 13 shift is a good thing to do and the right thing to do, but I 14 understand one year or two years doesn't make that much 15 difference. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'd rather do the two this 17 year and two next year. That would at least get halfway to 18 where I'd like to be. And I think it makes more sense, 19 because you put them in, and then that way they're staggered 20 to where you don't have all of them coming due for replacement 21 all at one time. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a good point. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The issue, to me, is not 24 Tahoe versus Expedition or any other car like -- vehicle like 25 that. The issue, to me, is having vehicles that can get 9-10-07 84 1 through the terrain we have to avoid the water problems we've 2 had with the Crown Victorias, the loss of those vehicles. 3 That, to me, is the issue. If it's how many you need, how 4 many do you need, Sheriff, to be certain on each shift that 5 you accommodate the needs based on weather and other 6 considerations? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Four. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Four. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One on each -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: One on each shift. You don't 12 know. You know, and that puts it with the sergeants on each 13 shift. Each sergeant would have the Tahoe, and that leaves 14 you five Crown Vics on each shift as long as you're fully 15 staffed, but you've got to have the one on each shift. You're 16 running 24 hours a day. Either you're going to run one on 17 each shift for a 24-hour period, or you're going to share two, 18 okay, and you're going to double the mileage and wear it out 19 just as quick. And I have a deal on what we were -- y'all had 20 looked at some on the sharing of cars, and that's the same 21 thing you're going to end up with. And I have a letter in 22 here I'll be more than happy to read you about the City's 23 problem with sharing cars and the maintenance costs and the 24 wearing them out. And with today's car -- John Lavender's not 25 in here; he used to be an auto mechanic. The computerized new 9-10-07 85 1 cars change with the driver, the computer does. And anytime 2 you start changing drivers in them, you're going to start 3 having more and more problems, and that's exactly what this 4 is. That's why you need one on each shift. I will agree not 5 to go to a whole fleet of Tahoes. In fact, we're looking at 6 some other things other departments are doing that are cutting 7 down some costs too. But the Crown Vics are -- are a water 8 problem, and most deputies will tell you. And you need one on 9 each shift and you don't need to share it; you're going to 10 wear it out. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Can't the -- can't the water problems 12 with the Crown Vics, the intake problem, can't that be solved 13 with training? How difficult is it to train an officer not to 14 drive off into water that's going to end up giving him that 15 sort of a problem and put him on foot? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Both of these issues that we've 17 had, okay, have never driven off the paved road or were even 18 on low-water crossings. They were on regular intersections, 19 one here in town, one in Ingram -- I mean in Center Point, in 20 town. You have to get to those, okay? My guys, I can promise 21 you, they won't go across low-water crossings or anything 22 else, and it's causing us a problem. That last high water 23 deal we had, we actually got into a -- to a D.O.S. scene 24 before the water came up, and we had to get a flatbed wrecker 25 to get -- to lift our car back up, 'cause the flatbed stood up 9-10-07 86 1 higher, and get us back out of the D.O.S. scene. And we also 2 had to use a wrecker to get the hearse into the D.O.S. scene. 3 We've got a lot of areas in this county where you need taller 4 vehicles, and we don't have a choice. I'm not worried about 5 the -- the high-speed pursuits. That's not what we're that 6 concerned about, but being able to get on the roads in this 7 county, and the way all these people are building houses way 8 back in the subdivision, way back in low-water crossings, you 9 know, we've got to get to them. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's -- I mean, I'm not 11 concerned about the high water issue. That should be 12 education. I'm more concerned about -- this year, for 13 example, going out anywhere on Lane Valley, I mean, you needed 14 a lot of times a vehicle that was higher. You had debris on 15 the -- on the Guadalupe River bridge four or five times. And, 16 I mean, Road and Bridge can't be everywhere at once. They've 17 got to be able to get through. I mean, people living out in 18 the more rural areas tend to not have cars, period. And in 19 their families, I mean, most of them are driving S.U.V.'s of 20 some sort, husbands, wives, whatever. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We just heard about the Town 22 Creek area this morning. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I mean, I think -- I have no 24 problem at all going to Tahoes or whatever type vehicle the 25 Sheriff thinks is appropriate for that. You know, I don't 9-10-07 87 1 know that it has to be done this year. I agree that we 2 need -- you know, yes, it's nice to -- I don't have a problem 3 with it. I'll support two this year and two next year or four 4 this year. I think we need to get there. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, do the Tahoes float? 6 That seems like to me that's really the question that's on the 7 table. But if I had -- if I were king for the day and I can 8 make decisions, I would -- I'd lower the tax rate in Kerr 9 County and give the taxpayers some of their money back. But I 10 am not king, and I know that the -- I know that the taxpayers, 11 the citizens of this county, demand law enforcement protection 12 and fire protection and an ambulance, and a halfway decent 13 road to drive on. And that's not because of you and you're so 14 cute and all that, but it's this Court's duty to provide them 15 with law enforcement protection. Now, I'm not completely sold 16 that everybody that lives off out in the woods and don't have 17 cars and all that -- I don't know that that's the case. And I 18 do somewhat agree with the Judge; how dumb can you be, driving 19 off in a bunch of water? But -- but I also agree with you 20 that -- that you got -- when you get a call, you got to go to 21 them, and you have to have a vehicle to get you from Point A 22 to save -- saving life and property. So, with all that said, 23 I still would like to consider lowering the tax rate and 24 giving some of the -- (cell phone rang) That's a $25 fine. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We have -- we -- the only way I 9-10-07 88 1 can do this and try to keep it to where capital outlay wasn't 2 any more than last year was do with the four years. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So -- let me finish. And so 4 I'm -- if I had to vote right now, I would vote that you would 5 get one per shift. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Which is four. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What is the dollar amount 8 we're talking about difference here? Not brand name, the 9 dollar amount. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You have to look at two 11 different situations. One is the equipment that is on the 12 vehicle, because it's the County's equipment, and you have to 13 add this to the price. Last year's -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you give us a summary -- a 15 total, so we don't spend all day on this? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Total base price on the 17 vehicles is about 7,000-something. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Difference per vehicle? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does that include all your 21 equipment costs? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's a little bit more on that 23 part. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's close enough. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. I share Commissioner 9-10-07 89 1 Baldwin's point of view. I think I'm looking at it from the 2 standpoint of the Sheriff being -- deputies being able to get 3 where they need to get when they need to get there. And 4 $7,000 per vehicle, stretched out over the lease period, to 5 me, is not insurmountable. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think the total was 57,000 7 over the lease period difference, and that extended the lease 8 payment by one year. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One year. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And that figure, to my 11 knowledge, was 57,000, what you had presented. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. The difference -- that's 13 right. The difference is, the other thing we did this year 14 from last year, last year we had four cars. My mileage is 15 getting up there; I can show you what it is. This year we put 16 five cars, so you're adding one more car, plus you're adding 17 one more year. So, it's not -- total bill, that's the 18 difference; you're adding one more vehicle this year, as 19 opposed to the past. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I've said my piece 21 pretty much. I just -- you know, I'm not against law 22 enforcement in any form or fashion. It's just that it's 23 amazing we've gotten by all these years without them, and now 24 all of a sudden we want four in one year. And that's the last 25 I'm going to say about it. 9-10-07 90 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He's not going to get four 2 next year. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Better get them this year. 4 I'll say the same thing again next year. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. What else we got to kick 6 around the stump here? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have any. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Only other thing -- we're 9 talking about budget stuff that we're -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Everything to do with budget? 12 That's where we are, right? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Salaries? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, salaries. You want 15 to -- do you want to start, or you want me -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've already told my -- went 17 down the list and already said my opinion on them. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm going to say my piece. 19 I've come up with a different version. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Go ahead. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Ms. Hargis, everything that 22 you have listed on this sheet that you gave us this morning, 23 it appears to me that, starting with the constables, you have 24 a 3.5 and a 3.5 included in that, increase? That's more than 25 3 percent. 9-10-07 91 1 MS. HARGIS: On the constables? Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. Is that what -- 3 MS. HARGIS: That was what was the recommendation 4 that Ms. Hyde gave. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The recommendation of who? 6 MS. HARGIS: Ms. Hyde. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 8 MS. HARGIS: Actually, there was -- it's a 4.03, and 9 then a 3.5. It was 3.5. 10 MS. HYDE: No, that's -- no. This one is the COLA, 11 and this is -- this is where they're at currently. They got a 12 4 percent last year. 13 MS. HARGIS: Three and a half to three and a half. 14 Some of the others are not exactly three and a half and three 15 and a half. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay, let me just start out 17 there. Constable 1 through 4 are set -- the present salary is 18 33,994. 19 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's correct? 21 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The proposed salary for the 23 coming year is 36,461. 24 MS. HARGIS: That's right. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That appears to me to be -- 9-10-07 92 1 MS. HARGIS: 3.5 and 3.5. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Twenty -- 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 7 percent. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's 7 percent, okay. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's 3.5 base and 3.5 6 COLA. Is that the way you've got it recommended? 7 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm not sure I go along with 9 the 3.5 increase and the COLA on these. And -- however, I do 10 so on the County Clerk. I do on the District Clerk and the 11 Tax Assessor/Collector. When it comes to Commissioners, that 12 figure is a 3.5? 13 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Plus what? Another 3.5? 15 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And the years of service? 17 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I disagree with the 3.5 on 19 Commissioners in addition to a COLA. I do buy the years of 20 service, because as you've been in longer, you're probably -- 21 you should be worth more to the taxpayers, and that gives a -- 22 that gives a variation between somebody just coming on in 23 their very first year and somebody who's been here a long 24 time. I can go along with that one. I do not like the 3.5, 25 because it gives us a greater increase than what we're giving 9-10-07 93 1 to the employees. I think it's wrong. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I got an ally here now. Now 3 I'll start talking. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, that's the way I feel. 5 I don't think it's right. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. That's fine. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I disagree that you hand-pick 9 clerks and -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree with that, too. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- all of that. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I disagree. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's why it's out there on 15 the table. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My view is that the only ones 17 that get a -- a salary increase are the County Clerk, District 18 Clerk, and J.P.'s. And everybody else gets -- and everyone 19 else is getting an increase on the longevity side. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. Are you saying that -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the County Clerk, 22 District Clerk, and J.P.'s get the increases as recommended. 23 Everybody else only gets the COLA. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You didn't include the Tax 25 Assessor in that? 9-10-07 94 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Once again, that's 4 selective -- that's selective or arbitrary, based on your 5 point of view. And -- which is perfectly fine. You got -- 6 everybody has a right to do that. But I think if you're going 7 to look at improving the base salary of any elected official, 8 you look at it top to bottom. We've been through this 9 exercise repeatedly. We've gone through it again this time. 10 Last time we looked at it extensively, the amount of money 11 that was ultimately agreed for those improvements was cut 12 seriously in all categories, particularly -- particularly the 13 Court. So, my feeling is that if anybody in this -- any 14 elected official deserves consideration, they all deserve 15 consideration. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think the years of service 17 does give that consideration. But I don't -- you know, I see 18 that -- the way I feel is, if you do like you're talking about 19 doing your salary comparison to other counties and things is 20 one thing, but we're -- we're looking in the areas I believe 21 that Jonathan and I basically agree on, and -- but I -- I 22 totally, totally disagree with doing it for the Commissioners. 23 I think it's just dead wrong. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other reason, I mean, 25 I've changed a little bit since last time I brought it up, 9-10-07 95 1 because at that time, longevity wasn't included. I think 2 doing a longevity policy change and across-the-board increases 3 is just wrong. I mean, I think -- you know, I'm much more 4 willing to split that over two years, maybe look at the other 5 elected officials that didn't get one other than the six that 6 I'm recommending this year, looking at them next year. But -- 7 or two years down the road or sometime in the future. But, I 8 mean, the reality is, if you look at the -- all of that 9 combined, there's a lot of elected officials, myself being 10 one, that's getting about a 10 percent increase, and I don't 11 think -- I think that's too much. I don't think that's 12 reasonable. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, if you put it all 14 together, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't disagree with you. But if 15 you're going to take out any base consideration, improvement 16 to the base salary, then my view is then you have to improve 17 the proposed longevity. We set it at $100 to get it 18 established. So, if you're going to take out the base 19 improvement out elected officials top to bottom, then the 20 incremental -- incremental piece on longevity should be looked 21 at again. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's fine the way it is. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I knew you would. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's talk about longevity 25 for a second. Now, I -- my memory says that we left here the 9-10-07 96 1 other day saying that -- "years of service" was the words I 2 kept hearing. Years of service needed to be contiguous? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: "Continuous" is the term I threw out, 4 but that may not be appropriate, Commissioner. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Connected one with another. 6 But, see, that doesn't -- that doesn't make any sense to me at 7 all. If you're talking about years of service -- and Bruce 8 and I -- I'll just use myself as an example. I was here four 9 years and laid out five -- four, five years and came back. 10 Why would that previous -- my first four years be left out? 11 JUDGE TINLEY: You're exactly right. I don't think 12 continuous should be applicable to an elected official. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that going to change? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That experience you bring back -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: -- with you when you come back, and 17 that's -- that's the -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: That's what the whole thing's driven 20 by. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't have any problem 22 with that. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. It just doesn't make 24 any sense to me. You know, years of service is years of 25 service. Doesn't matter where they were. 9-10-07 97 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But you're not talking about 2 -- I don't disagree with what you're saying, but you're not 3 talking about years of service as an employee prior to being 4 an elected -- you're talking about as an elected -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, talking about elected 6 official. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Talking about an elected 8 official. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As elected officials. And, 10 you know, I've been here long enough that -- to have heard 11 this story before about, well, we can take care of this group 12 over here this year, and then next year we'll take care of 13 this group over here. Well, we never get to that group over 14 there. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It never happens. So, I -- 17 you know, if we're going to give any raises, we need to kind 18 of be fair across the board, in my opinion. I just -- I -- 19 why would you leave out constables? I mean, why? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, let me pose this 21 question to you, if I might, so that we can get some 22 clarification. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I'm trying to do. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: As an elected official, are we 25 speaking of an elected official in any office? Or are we 9-10-07 98 1 speaking as an elected official in that particular office? 2 For example, we've got a situation before us right now, the 3 individual served as a constable; he's now going to be serving 4 as a justice of the peace. Both of those positions are 5 elected. Are you going to accumulate those, or are you going 6 to restrict it to the same elected office? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, that should carry with 8 him. There should be some portability in that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not that big a deal. I 10 wouldn't do that, but it's not that big a deal one way or the 11 other to me. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I just wanted that clarification. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's why you're Number 3 14 and I'm Number 1. (Laughter.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I've heard that before. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Usually when we disagree on 18 something. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, the two Commissioners 20 on the left side of the dais -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Our friends. You are our 22 good friends. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are you opposed to adjusting 24 elected officials' salaries in principle, or just amount of 25 the proposed increase? 9-10-07 99 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the ones that I've 2 designated are -- one group, the J.P.'s, got additional work 3 put on them by the Legislature, and I think that that's no 4 different than adding additional work to employees. And we -- 5 we relook at their position -- our position schedule and make 6 adjustments there accordingly. That's how I view the J.P.'s. 7 The other two are offices that I think they've done 8 outstanding jobs in their offices and they've got some of 9 the -- great responsibility and large staffs, and I'd like -- 10 I think they probably should be bumped up a little bit. And 11 this is departing from a policy that this Court adopted before 12 I was on the Court, I guess some point in the early 90's, of 13 equalizing four offices, and I don't think those four offices 14 are equal. I think we should make some adjustments. That's 15 my reasoning. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm going to agree with one 17 of your concepts here, but for a different set of reasons. 18 Going to surprise you. I think 7 percent is too high. 19 Cost-of-living should be what it is; that's established and we 20 all recognize that. But I think 3 and a half percent top and 21 bottom is too much. 2 percent would be more acceptable in my 22 mind, and one of the reasons is because 3 and a half and 3 and 23 a half is 7, and we were critical of KCAD for 7 percent. I 24 don't want to get in that bind. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I wondered if that was going 9-10-07 100 1 to come out before I was going to say it. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Bingo. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought about it. So -- 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I was -- that was going to be 5 my next comment. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Beat you to it. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. But if we leave -- if 9 you leave the Commissioners Court out of it, then that makes 10 it a little more palatable. So, now we're -- 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I assure you, that is sure 12 enough the case. Leave Commissioners Court out of it 13 completely, except for the COLA's. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I don't agree -- I mean -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which we always do. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We do that. We historically 18 have done that. I think the Commissioners -- if we're going 19 to look at top to bottom, you have to include the 20 Commissioners. I think we ought to look at those that I -- 21 you know, in my view, deserve it, and if we want to do a top 22 to bottom next year, something like that, we'll do a top to 23 bottom. But, I mean, at some point you've got to increase 24 Commissioners' salaries. And, obviously, it's -- it looks bad 25 to the public that we're voting ourselves increases, but you 9-10-07 101 1 got to make adjustments that workloads have changed over time. 2 I mean, obviously, this job has changed; it's a whole lot more 3 than it was in the '80's. Last ten years, it's changed 4 greatly. So, I mean, I don't have any problem with voting 5 Commissioners an increase. I just have a problem with doing a 6 longevity increase and a top-to-bottom 3 and a half percent 7 increase or more. 2 percent is better, but it's still not 8 where I'd like to be. I'd like to be -- what I proposed. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which was? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Increases as stated for the 11 County Clerk, District Clerk, and J.P.'s, and the longevity 12 policy as on the sheet. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you said the J.P.'s 14 because the laws -- some laws have changed; I agree with that 15 100 percent. You don't think laws have changed for the County 16 Attorney as well? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: County Judge, Commissioners, 18 everybody else. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think there's any 20 specific increase in jobs by the Legislature. I mean, I think 21 that there were -- certainly, every time the Legislature does 22 anything, it probably increases the workload of almost all of 23 us that are elected officials and employees. But I think 24 theirs was -- theirs was a little bit more unusual of changing 25 what their authorities are, is usually the case that I've 9-10-07 102 1 seen. Rusty wants to talk. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: What's new? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just one issue. That in the 4 proposed -- and y'all will recall this. In the past, the 5 County adopted the policy that the chief deputy not make -- or 6 the Sheriff make 5,000 more than the chief deputy. At this 7 proposal, because my chief deputy is in line for the 8 longevity, so he will, in reality, be getting a 6 percent this 9 year, because of longevity, starting October 1. That's his 10 anniversary date. This gave the Sheriff's position a 11 7 percent, so if you take away the 3 and a half, then you're 12 going to put us back down below what the County had adopted. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I think there may be another solution 14 to that issue, Sheriff. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Get rid of me? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that's always an 17 option. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Hire my chief deputy for a 19 constable position. I'm just -- what was proposed in there, 20 and I don't even know if you even knew it, kept us right at 1 21 percent better. So, I don't know. He was getting a 6; I was 22 getting a 7. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, what's your view? I 24 mean, you're kind of -- it's kind of divided at the moment, it 25 appears. 9-10-07 103 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the -- the longevity thing I 2 think got pitched out on the table at the last minute when we 3 met the last time dealing with these issues. The other issues 4 had been massaged and crunched, all those numbers, by the H.R. 5 Director, and she brought those to us after -- after looking 6 at a lot of different things, comparable counties, comparable 7 duties, so forth. So, there was at least, apparently, a whole 8 lot more thought given to those. Now, when the -- when the 9 longevity thing for elected officials came out, it, in my 10 view, just kind of got pitched out as an afterthought at the 11 end of the meeting, and I'm not sure that's been totally 12 thought through and -- and considered to the extent those 13 other ones were. So -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you're saying that you think 15 we should do as recommended originally and get rid of the 16 longevity? That's kind of where you're coming -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, at this juncture, yes. I don't 18 think the longevity has been looked at to the degree that -- 19 that all the other items were looked at. As you recall, there 20 were some adjustments, some additions, deletions and so forth 21 to what the H.R. Director brought us. But the longevity 22 just -- just was kind of an afterthought in our -- our last 23 meeting when we discussed those. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's kind of -- I can go 25 there. I can live with that idea. I'd rather have the other, 9-10-07 104 1 but I just think -- I think the overall package is too high. 2 That's -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's what I think. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, you're saying, Judge, 5 that we should reconsider the longevity issue? Is that what 6 your point is? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For another time? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And think it out more 11 carefully? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And leave the recommendation 14 in place, top to bottom, that came from the H.R. Department? 15 Is that what I'm hearing? 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Essentially. Because that's the H.R. 17 Director's job, is to be in tune with those sorts of things. 18 And -- and she actually spent a fair amount of time to crunch 19 those numbers, review comparable figures, see what's being 20 done across the state and other counties that have similar 21 budgets, similar populations, and things of that nature. She 22 spent a good deal of time on that. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think so. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: It wasn't something she just 25 scratched out some numbers and threw out on the table. There 9-10-07 105 1 was some pretty good effort put into it by her. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. Well, since I'm the 3 one who proposed the longevity plan, if it means the Court's 4 going along with the H.R. Department's recommendations, I'd be 5 willing to put the longevity plan on hold for the next budget 6 year. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I still don't agree. I'll 8 agree on everything except Commissioners, and the extra 3.5. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, there's another 10 solution to that, Commissioner, and that is that these are 11 salaries that are set for the job. Any individual holding a 12 job that doesn't want to take that salary can keep the salary 13 -- his or her salary the same. You do not have to accept it. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think as long -- that's true, 15 and I just think it's important that you keep the budget the 16 same for all four Commissioners. I'll make a motion that we 17 approve the two recommendations made by the District Clerk, 18 and we accept the -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: H.R.? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the elected officials' salary 21 schedule as recommended by the H.R., with the exception of 22 deleting the longevity as proposed -- as set forth. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For all elected officials. 25 (Discussion off the record.) 9-10-07 106 1 JUDGE TINLEY: You seconded? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I seconded. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, you seconded? Okay. We have a 4 motion and a second. Further question or discussion on that 5 motion? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, you did the salaries, 7 but -- and you did the District Clerk issue? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that the only thing that 10 came up today? We've been here two and a half days on this 11 one issue, and that's all we're going to do? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We spent a good bit of time 13 on Tahoes, but -- 14 MS. HYDE: We got one for -- if we're doing the 15 District Clerk's, we got one for Tax Assessor/Collector too. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What is that? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Here we go. What do you 18 think? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: We've got a motion in front of us 20 now. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm ready to vote. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Further question or discussion on 23 that motion? Essentially, you're just deleting the longevity 24 aspects of elected official -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 9-10-07 107 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Question -- further question? 2 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 3 hand. 4 (Commissioners Baldwin, Williams, and Letz voted in favor of the motion.) 5 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (Commissioner Oehler voted against the motion.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Now, we have 9 other business in connection with that particular agenda item; 10 is that correct? 11 MS. HYDE: That's correct. I think. Yes. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Do you have another matter you 13 wish to present? 14 MS. HYDE: It's with the Tax Collector, yes. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 MS. HYDE: It's on -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Bolin, what do you have for us? 18 MS. BOLIN: Ms. Hyde's going to take care of it, 19 because she understands what's she's doing, and I don't. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 21 MS. BOLIN: I gave justification when I first gave 22 my budget for these, and I didn't realize that we needed to do 23 this today. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 MS. BOLIN: So -- 9-10-07 108 1 MS. HYDE: These are -- real quick. These are 2 realigning like we did in other departments, so that we have 3 starters, mediums, and then supervisors, like we talked about 4 before, on two positions that are 15's, a step increase due do 5 merit, and one 13 step increase for merit. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Are they changing job descriptions? 7 MS. HYDE: Yes. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: In all three? 9 MS. HYDE: Yes. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Enhanced job descriptions? 11 MS. HYDE: Yes, and cross-training. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's not merit increases; 13 they're job description increases. 14 MS. HYDE: Whatever we want to call them, yes. I 15 mean, what I'm trying to do is create -- create parity within 16 these positions, so when we do job description changes and we 17 add job performance as well as what they're supposed to do, 18 cross-training and supervisory levels, then yes. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, you've been involved in 20 the original job description as well as the development of the 21 new description. 22 MS. HYDE: Right. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Talking about three positions? 24 MS. HYDE: Mm-hmm. Three positions, 2.5. It's just 25 a step. 9-10-07 109 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There is no basic budgetary 2 impact to this? 3 MS. HYDE: 2.5 percent. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 2.5 for three? 5 MS. HYDE: For three. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Three positions. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Three positions. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I see a perplexed look on the 9 Judge's face. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, when we're talking about 11 revamping a job description, I think the elected official 12 essentially has the authority to come in and specify that, do 13 they not? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think we -- I mean -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: We're really not talking about merit. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's the issue here. I 17 mean, I think there's -- I mean, obviously -- well, I won't 18 say obviously. I have a problem with performance out of that 19 department. There is a lot of -- we had a lot of headaches 20 this summer because of some mess-ups in the Tax Assessor's 21 office. That's in the back of my mind. That's why I say 22 merit -- I mean, I have a real problem giving merit increases 23 in a department that had a lot of problems. Now, if we're 24 changing job descriptions, or reworking like the Judge is 25 talking, that's a little bit different. That's why I asked 9-10-07 110 1 the question, is this merit or not? The answer was, "Well, 2 whatever you want to call it." Well, no, that's not whatever 3 you call it. Merit increases is doing an exceptional job and 4 getting moved up. A job description change, you're increasing 5 job responsibilities. And I'm not real sure what we're doing 6 here. 7 MS. HYDE: These are job responsibility changes. 8 But in the past, when I've gone back and looked at the 9 discussions and the transcripts, the word "merit" and "job 10 descriptions," all these things have been used in the past. 11 To me, this is -- this is realigning job descriptions, so that 12 our step and grade starts looking like a true step and grade. 13 That different offices -- you know, just because you have 14 different job responsibilities doesn't mean that those job 15 responsibilities should be higher grades or lower grades. 16 Some of these are entry-level positions. So, an entry-level 17 position ought to fall within a range on our grades. If 18 they're supervising people, they ought to fall within a range 19 on the grades. So, to me, it's revamping the job 20 descriptions. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to approve -- 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why are we so late in doing 23 this? 24 MS. HYDE: In doing what? 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This, for this department. 9-10-07 111 1 I thought we went through steps and grades and evaluations and 2 so forth during all our workshops. Why are we now doing 3 the -- 4 MS. HYDE: No, there weren't any during the 5 workshops. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, why weren't they? Why 7 are we doing it now, would be my question. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- I think the -- I 9 wasn't in on those discussions, but first I'll make a motion 10 to approve the recommendation of the H.R. Department related 11 to the Tax Assessor's office. 12 MS. HYDE: Thank you. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the -- 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the comment is -- and I 17 think the -- you know, I agree with Commissioner Williams; 18 this is too late to be doing these things, and these should 19 have been brought up during the workshop of the department. 20 Ms. Uecker did that. I don't recall whether Ms. Bolin did it 21 or not. I don't recall that she did, but I know Ms. Uecker 22 did. So, you know, that was -- it was -- it needs to be done 23 during that phase of our budget process, in my mind. But -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: In defense of Ms. Bolin, she made 25 these requests in her budget request that I initially 9-10-07 112 1 received. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Now, the degree to which they were 4 discussed, if at all, during the workshop may be a different 5 issue, but she had these in her request. 6 MS. BOLIN: My understanding was that we were not to 7 discuss any salary issues during the workshop; that it would 8 be discussed at one of the meetings. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 10 MS. BOLIN: So that's why I did not bring it up. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 MS. BOLIN: And, Commissioner Letz, just for 13 clarification for you, since you haven't spoken to me 14 regarding the issue with the problem in my office, it was a 15 software problem. There was -- is a glitch in the way that 16 they code the statements, and there are two separate types of 17 statements that we're dealing with. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ms. Bolin, if we sent out 19 statements that were in error and we knew there was a software 20 problem, we're at fault. 21 MS. BOLIN: We did not know until after they went 22 out. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'm not going to go into 24 that now. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second. Further 9-10-07 113 1 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 2 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jannett? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Are those all the budget items? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jannett? You're not going to 10 do one? 11 MS. PIEPER: Well, I'm concerned now, because I 12 approached y'all also about a merit, and I heard it was 13 stripped. But, I mean, the last time I looked, it was there. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You punched a sleeping bear. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I know. I know. 16 That's just one of the several. 17 MS. PIEPER: But I do have one -- mine is because of 18 an increase in job duties; it's just a one-step. 19 MS. HYDE: This is just -- 20 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it in or not? 22 MS. PIEPER: The one that was -- the very first one 23 that was posted on the web site was there. And I haven't 24 checked the web site, but -- since then. 25 MS. HYDE: Ms. Hargis stripped any merit increases 9-10-07 114 1 that were presented with their documentation. They were 2 stripped out of the budget. 3 MS. PIEPER: But I have one additional employee and 4 one merit. Or raise, or whatever you want to call it. 5 MS. HYDE: The additional employee is still in 6 there, but the merit increase is gone. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The additional employee deals with 8 the records. 9 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: As I recall. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that a recommendation from 12 the H.R. Department as well, that change? 13 (Ms. Hyde nodded.) 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to approve 15 the recommendation related to the County clerk. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which one? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only one. The new job is there. 19 MS. HYDE: The job is there. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Job description. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's one step? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the County Clerk's office. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One step? 24 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 25 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 9-10-07 115 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second for 2 approval of that in the County Clerk's office. Further 3 question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify 4 by raising your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Can we go to the 9 next item, gentlemen? 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why not? 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 16; consider, 12 discuss, and take appropriate action to set date time and 13 place of public hearing on the Kerr County FY 2007-08 budget. 14 (Discussion off the record.) 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Airport's timed at 11:00. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, my goodness. I apologize, 17 Commissioner. I completely lost sight of the addendum. Let 18 me defer action on 16. We have an 11 o'clock timed item. 19 Item 21; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on 20 governance issues related to Kerrville/Kerr County Joint 21 Airport Board. My apologies, Commissioner. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No problem. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Completely got by me. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda late -- 25 or not late; I guess about 11 o'clock on Friday, based on 9-10-07 116 1 numerous conversations I had with the County Attorney related 2 to my position on the Airport Board, as well as Commissioner 3 Williams' appointment. And, basically -- some of the members 4 of the audience were not here -- both Commissioner Williams 5 and I resigned this morning from that board. The basic issue 6 concerning the Airport Board is the conflict of interest 7 issue, and it comes into -- "noncompatibility," I think, is 8 the actual term. It's based on statutes, case law, and 9 Supreme Court decisions, that you can't appoint yourself to a 10 board, and basically means that Commissioners can't appoint 11 themselves to a board of this type. 12 I've been rather irritated by this, and I think I've 13 voiced that to a number of people, some City Council people as 14 well. The biggest problem I have -- I do not have a problem 15 with the, I guess, oversight originally when the City Attorney 16 drafted the agreement through his office. Mistakes are made. 17 This was -- in my opinion, was probably an oversight. Could 18 have been an oversight. But where I really have a problem is 19 that this issue has been brought up by myself and Commissioner 20 Williams at the vast majority of the Airport Board meetings. 21 We have brought this up from a managerial standpoint, a 22 financial standpoint, and a legal standpoint. I felt there's 23 a conflict of interest in the way it was being operated. 24 The -- Chapter 22 of the Government Code, which we are 25 operating under on the Airport Board, is a pretty clear 9-10-07 117 1 document, pretty concise, and it sets it up as an independent 2 body. 3 Through the -- not -- or I guess the opinions voiced 4 at the Airport Board by both the City Attorney and the City 5 Manager, they consistently say that I was wrong, Commissioner 6 Williams was wrong, and others on the board were wrong, that 7 there was no conflict. And I think the case -- the truth now 8 comes out that the fact is that there is a conflict that 9 prohibits both the City Council members from being on that 10 board, and Commissioner Williams and I from serving on that 11 board. This should have been looked into several years ago. 12 It was clearly brought up by Airport Board, and I think there 13 is absolutely no good explanation for the City staff's lack of 14 cooperation looking into it; lack of cooperation with the 15 Airport Board, for that matter. I think that the -- you know, 16 to me, this is a very important issue, and I'm very 17 disappointed the direction we've received from the City staff. 18 I think this is mostly their responsibility. They certainly 19 should have come through it. I think that the County Attorney 20 and the Commissioners bear some of the responsibility, because 21 we did, you know, have the -- even though we didn't draft the 22 agreements to the County, we certainly have been using them 23 and working with them. 24 This was kind of caught both by the -- as I 25 understand, by the County Attorney and the City Attorney about 9-10-07 118 1 the same time, that this was a problem. And the -- I think 2 action was taken promptly as soon as it was found out. And 3 I'd like to take this as -- I think the good news is, I think 4 the opportunity now presents itself for us to move forward on 5 the Airport Board and create it up -- set it up as a legal 6 entity, separate from the City, separate from the County. I 7 think it will be more separate than I had originally thought 8 of, kind of along the lines that Judge Tinley recommended 9 several years ago, that it'll be a board -- should be a board 10 without any Commissioners or any City Council members or 11 County employees or City employees serving on it. It's going 12 to be set up -- to run it, there will be budgetary oversight 13 both by the City and the County, and other than that, it will 14 be an independent board. That's what I think it needs to be. 15 That's what the law provides for. And I'll -- hopefully, the 16 Court will, later on, you know, allow me to continue to work 17 on getting us to this next step on the airport, and depending 18 on what that board feels, I hope to be involved with the -- 19 continue to be involved with the airport. That's all I have 20 to say at the moment. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, having resigned from 22 the Airport Board earlier, whatever I say now has to be taken 23 as a County Commissioner, and not as an Airport Board member. 24 And I think it's more than just coincidental that the City 25 Attorney, acting in an advisory capacity, just happened to 9-10-07 119 1 stumble upon a 1928 case law from the Texas Supreme Court. 2 And what's interesting is that he stumbled on that, having 3 done the research necessary to propose some amendments to the 4 governance agreement that had never been presented to us prior 5 to having been presented to City Council. And the interesting 6 thing about it is that when we sat and negotiated the 7 governance agreement some four years or so ago, that same 8 research didn't take place, and that same case law wasn't -- 9 wasn't brought to light, nor was the negotiating committee 10 comprised of Commissioner Letz and myself and two members of 11 City Council, nor were we familiar with that. 12 Be that as it may, it is what it is, and the law of 13 the state of Texas will always prevail. And so, as a County 14 Commissioner, and one who has a deep and abiding interest in 15 the airport and its issues and its growth, not only for 16 economic development reasons, which I think it is an integral 17 part of our economic development program in Kerr County, but 18 also I have an abiding interest because it's a major piece of 19 my precinct, and I'm going to continue to be interested in its 20 development and so forth. I think it's an opportunity, as 21 Commissioner Letz said, for us to back away and for the City 22 Council members to back away, and for City staff to back away 23 and let this airport function the way it is now, hopefully, 24 going to be intended to function. 25 I don't see -- I see if there's any conflict of 9-10-07 120 1 interest, in my mind, it comes from the City providing 2 services as a contractor, and having the lead -- the lead 3 executive in charge being a City employee. Those are 4 conflicts of interest. And, so, if we get the opportunity to 5 straighten that out, I hope that Commissioner Letz and I do 6 get the opportunity to meet with members of Council -- City 7 Council and work a new governance agreement out. I think that 8 we have the opportunity to correct those obvious deficiencies 9 and flaws, so I welcome the opportunity. I think we have the 10 potential now to structure a board with businessmen and 11 aviation people who have -- people knowledgeable about 12 airports and how they're run, and set up a board that can 13 function in the true essence of the word, and can conform with 14 the law. So, I welcome the opportunity to move forward. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One other thing I'd like to 16 bring up. And while I focus -- and I think everyone's been 17 focusing largely on the conflict inherent because of the 18 self-appointment, there are other problems with the way we're 19 operating right now with Chapter 22, and I refer to Section 20 22.083(c). I'll just read one very short sentence. 21 "Disbursements from the fund" -- being the airport fund -- 22 "shall be made by order of the joint board." This was an 23 issue that has been discussed many times by the Airport Board, 24 and we were told it was not our job to get into the details of 25 that; that it was up to the City to approve those bills. That 9-10-07 121 1 is exactly contrary to state law. And the -- and this is the 2 one that really probably got me more irritated than the other 3 one, because the other one, you have to go through some 4 statutes and some case law and some Supreme Court opinions to 5 get there. This one, it's black and white. I mean, I don't 6 see that there's much discretion in that one. And that's not 7 the way we were told to operate. And it was brought up -- I 8 brought it up; I was told I was wrong flat out by the City 9 Attorney, City Manager, and there's just no excuse for that. 10 So, that's how I feel about it. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Now maybe the grass will get 12 mowed. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Huh? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Maybe the grass will be mowed 15 out there, too. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And bluebonnets. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: When they're in bloom. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the -- two things I 20 think that are -- you know, Rex and Commissioner Williams, 21 this is how I see us going from here. I want to try to get 22 past this as quickly as possible. I would be very interested 23 in serving. I think Commissioner Williams would, too, on 24 being appointed by the Court to work with representatives of 25 the City Council, along with our County Attorney and whoever 9-10-07 122 1 they choose, to come up with a new governance agreement that 2 is legal. And that needs to happen, I think, as soon as 3 possible, because there's a lot of things in play at the 4 airport right now that need to be handled. In the interim -- 5 I talked with the County Attorney -- I believe that the three 6 other members, being Mr. King, Mr. Vogt, and Mr. Bobertz, 7 their appointments are valid, and that they should continue to 8 operate the airport as the Airport Board until such time as a 9 new governance agreement is put together. And I would 10 encourage them to continue and act accordingly. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I concur with that. And 12 I've spoken with the County Attorney about that as well, and I 13 believe that it is important for the Airport Board to continue 14 to function while we're working on a new governance agreement. 15 And after seeing the provision of the Transportation Code that 16 calls for a specific forum based on the size of the board, I 17 believe we have the -- there is authority inherent in that 18 Transportation Code to do that. Am I correct, Mr. County 19 Attorney? That three people can continue -- 20 MR. EMERSON: Three people can proceed, yes. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Wake up. Yes, sir. 22 MR. EMERSON: I'm awake. I was trying to -- you 23 lost me in your train of thought there for a second. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Three people could proceed? 25 MR. EMERSON: Correct. 9-10-07 123 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. And that being the 2 case, then I would sincerely hope that that does happen while 3 we sit down, and hopefully that would be immediately, and 4 negotiate a new governance agreement. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Have we finally found an avenue 6 that'll maybe put this thing in operation as we originally 7 conceived it to be in 1970, when we put that board into 8 existence? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I hope so. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That would be wonderful. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does the County Attorney have 12 anything to add? 13 MR. EMERSON: Not unless the other three of you want 14 clarification on the doctrine of incompatibility. I talked to 15 Commissioners Williams and Letz extensively Friday. But if 16 y'all want me to expand on this issue -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You've also been talking with 18 the City Attorney. 19 MR. EMERSON: Extensively. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Y'all are in pretty much 21 agreement as to where we are right now, anyway? 22 MR. EMERSON: Correct. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Do we have any formal action that we 25 want to take -- 9-10-07 124 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: -- in connection with this item? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we appoint Letz and 4 Williams to work with City Council members to get the airport 5 headed down the right road. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But not to the Airport Board. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Didn't say a damn thing about 8 it. But -- 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To negotiate a new 10 governance agreement. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's correct. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll second your motion. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second as 14 indicated. Further question or discussion on the motion? All 15 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Well, it 20 looks like we've got a little ways to go here. Why don't we 21 come back at about 1:30, gentlemen? 22 (Recess taken from 11:56 a.m. to 1:35 p.m.) 23 - - - - - - - - - - 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we 25 might. It appears that we're down to Number 17, that being to 9-10-07 125 1 consider, discuss, and approve by record vote the proposed 2 Kerr County '07 tax rate and set a date, time, and place of 3 first and second public hearings on that tax rate. Did we do 4 16? I don't remember 16. 5 THE CLERK: We did not do 16. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Excuse me, you're exactly right. I 7 had it checked, but we had to back up and come back to 8 something. I'll come back to 17. 16; consider, discuss, and 9 take appropriate action to set date, time, and place of public 10 hearing on Kerr County FY 2007-'08 budget. I have got a -- 11 according to the timetable that I've got us working off of 12 now, I've got a final adoption date of 9/28, which I believe 13 is a Friday. Because of the spacing of -- of -- between 14 notices and hearing dates and so forth, I've got the public 15 hearing dates on 9/20 and 9/24. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we have -- we have two public 17 hearings? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, one's on the -- what time, 22 10:00 o'clock? 9 o'clock? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Name your poison. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Doesn't make a difference to me. 25 I'd rather do 10:00, personally. 9-10-07 126 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That's fine. 10 o'clock. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So, that's all we need to 3 do, is just set the public hearing right now, right? 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, the two -- well, we approve by 5 record vote the proposed tax rate. We don't finally adopt the 6 tax rate until the 28th. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, okay. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: And then we set the date, time, and 9 place -- obviously, the place is going to be right here in 10 this courtroom -- of the two public hearings. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Under Item 16, I'll 12 make a motion that we set the two public hearings on the Kerr 13 County Financial Year 2007-2008 budget on 9/20 at 10 a.m., and 14 9/24 at 10 a.m., and they'll both be held in the -- what's 15 this -- the Commissioners Courtroom. What's the name of this 16 place? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It says "County Courtroom" right 19 there. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second to set 21 public hearings on the -- 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 20th and 24th. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got this all discombooberated 24 here. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, want me to withdraw that 9-10-07 127 1 motion? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. We're talking about the 3 budget, aren't we? 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll withdraw my motion. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm still on Item 17, in case you 8 guys haven't figured that out. Hold what you got there; 9 that's going to be great for 17, Jon. Talking about time and 10 place of the public hearing on the Kerr County FY 2007-'08 11 budget. Now, I anticipate we will adopt that budget on the 12 same date that -- that we adopt the tax rate on the 28th. We 13 can certainly have the public hearing on that date or any date 14 prior. It's your call if you want to do it. 15 MS. HARGIS: Ten days. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 17 MS. HARGIS: Excuse me. Ten days after we publish 18 this. We have to have ten days to publish this. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that's going to be for the 20 24th. 21 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, so that would be fine. No sooner 22 than that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the -- yeah. We're going 24 to publish that, so we could do it on the 24th. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. We could do it on the 24th, 9-10-07 128 1 yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: When's that going to be 3 published? Tomorrow? 4 MS. HARGIS: Well, I doubt if I can get it in. 5 Probably Wednesday. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Before the 14th. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thursday is going to be soon enough 8 for ten days prior to that, but -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think from a public 10 standpoint, you want to have the hearing on the budget before 11 your drop-dead date on the tax rate. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd rather do it on the 24th. 14 So, I'll make a motion that we set the public hearing on the 15 Kerr County Financial Year 2007-2008 budget at 9:45 16 September 24th, in Commissioners Court Courtroom. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: At what time? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 9:45. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 9:45. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's on the budget? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know it's an odd time. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's the same day as regular 24 Commissioners Court? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, that is the same day as the 9-10-07 129 1 regular Commissioners Court meeting. 2 THE CLERK: We have a motion. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That'll work. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: And we have a second. Motion and 7 second to set the public hearing on the Kerr County FY 8 2007-'08 budget for 9:45 a.m. on September the 24th, 2007, 9 here in the Commissioners Court Courtroom. Any question or 10 discussion on that motion? All in favor of the motion, 11 signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Now we'll go 16 to Item 17; consider, discuss, and approve by record vote the 17 proposed Kerr County 2007 tax rate and set date, time, and 18 place of first and second public hearings on such tax rate. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does someone have what our tax 20 rate is, handy? 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I thought we had a memo, did 22 we not? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I thought we'd go ahead and do the -- 24 go ahead and get the motion on the -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we set our 9-10-07 130 1 first public hearing on the 2007 tax rate September 20th at 10 2 a.m., and our second public hearing on the Kerr County 2007 3 tax rate September 24th at 10 a.m. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Both of those to occur here in the 6 Commissioners Courtroom? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. We have a motion and a 9 second. Any further question on that motion? All in favor of 10 that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Now, with 15 regard to the proposed tax rate, I received a notification 16 from our financial adviser, Mr. Bob Henderson; it came in 17 Friday during my absence, and I provided each of you gentlemen 18 with a copy of it. Essentially, Mr. Henderson is concerned 19 about the growing impact of the tax freeze on our -- on our 20 tax base, the over-65 tax -- tax base, and that approximately 21 40 percent of the tax base being frozen. In his 22 communication, he recommends that -- that we try and counter 23 that -- not try and counter, do counter that, by increasing 24 the tax rate within rollback parameters in order to be able to 25 put ourselves in a position to compensate for that -- that 9-10-07 131 1 growing frozen part of the tax base. That's the way I read 2 it, at least. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the way I read it. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't know whether any of you guys 5 read it differently. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't realize it was 7 40 percent. I didn't ever do the math, but -- so 40 percent 8 of the taxable value is now frozen. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. About $800 million, 10 isn't it? 11 MS. HARGIS: 847 million. Yeah, it's about -- it's 12 40 -- I can -- I haven't researched the county, but the city 13 is at 40 percent, so they're -- you're 40 percent within the 14 city limits, and I think outside the city limits, you're 15 probably about the same. Probably over that outside the city 16 limits. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: And if my recollection of our 18 discussions is correct, we've got approximately one and a half 19 cents -- actually, I think it's 1.55 of total tax rate -- 20 MS. HARGIS: To get us to the rollback rate. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: -- before we hit rollback. 22 MS. HARGIS: And that's -- 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I think where we are now in rollback 24 at 1.55. 25 MS. HARGIS: Equivalent to -- a penny is worth what? 9-10-07 132 1 Is it 300 -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: 262. 3 MS. HARGIS: 362,000, I think I gave you on that 4 schedule. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: A penny generates what? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: 262, I think. 7 MS. HARGIS: No, it's 360-something. Do you have 8 it? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not real inclined on raising 10 the tax rate. I understand what Mr. Henderson is saying, 11 but -- 12 MS. HARGIS: 262 -- yeah, 262, you're right. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not voting for raising the 14 tax rate right now, not when we're giving increases in salary, 15 we're going and buying Tahoes and these other things and doing 16 that, and increase the tax at the same time. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm not either, but I think 18 he's just pointing out to us that we're going to hit a bind -- 19 a real bind here, either in the next year or the year after. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And there is some latitude 22 to do something about it. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. I mean, I think it is 24 -- I'm glad he -- he's putting us on notice that it's going to 25 have a big impact on us down the road, as it will for the city 9-10-07 133 1 too. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It will peak out at some 3 point, but it's -- right now, it's still on the incline. And 4 the City's going to find out that same thing after they've 5 been in a couple three years. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, Jeannie says they're 7 already at 40 percent. 8 MS. HARGIS: They're already -- even though this is, 9 you know, the first year, and I think it's -- you know, 10 compounding them at -- I think we figured 140,000. I don't 11 know what it actually came out to be when they finally got it 12 designated out. Do you remember, Diane? But it's going to 13 hit them faster than it is you. But you're -- having the 14 opportunity to have worked with both rolls, you're about twice 15 as large as they are, so yours is actually going to be twice 16 the hit. So, your first year was probably around 140, your 17 second year 280, and now you're at 580. So, you're 18 compounding faster than they are. And -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It will hit a point, though, 20 where you kind of -- it really doesn't -- it will kind of go 21 up and down after a while. I was on the school board in 22 Ingram when this was done with school districts, and, well, 23 the first five or six years were tough, and then after that it 24 starts to -- 25 MS. HARGIS: Level. 9-10-07 134 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- kind of level. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because people start -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Attrition takes care of -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The deceased makes up for the 5 newcomers. 6 MS. HARGIS: Well, I think you probably reach that 7 plateau where they bought their property slipping -- the 8 growth catches up with itself. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know how else to say it. 10 MS. HARGIS: Well, actually, I'm not real sure about 11 that either, because, unfortunately, most of the time when one 12 does pass away, then I think an over-65 person generally ends 13 up buying that house. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, but the thing is, they 15 come in at the new value. They don't go back to what the 16 value -- 17 MS. HARGIS: It's a one-year deal. It's a one-year 18 deal. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's where you start making 20 it up. 21 MS. HARGIS: Those little, small increments. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: When somebody either sells or 23 moves on or whatever, you know, that property that's been 24 frozen, when somebody else comes in and buys it, they're going 25 to be paying at the new value. 9-10-07 135 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do we ever make it up, or we 2 just slow the growth rate? 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You -- actually, it does 4 actually kind of level off. It kind of goes up -- 5 MS. HARGIS: I don't think you make it up. I think 6 you just catch up, is what you do. And the only -- the only 7 thing in the law that is a -- that could hurt us over time is 8 that the widow can be as young as 57, so that if -- in that 9 household, so if one passes to the next, then, you know, it 10 may not -- 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, and what happens is, 12 what -- the next thing that'll happen, and it might should 13 have happened this year -- and this is getting me in a lot of 14 trouble; I'm going to say it anyway. At some point in time, 15 whenever these things start happening, you either have to 16 raise the tax rate or you have to not do some things and -- 17 give COLA's, for instance. And might have to be for one year, 18 and that would probably be what we should have done this year, 19 to do just what Mr. Henderson is saying. We're just going to 20 prolong it till next year. That's just my -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sooner or later we have to 22 deal with it. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, I think that's his message. 24 You're just postponing the agony. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 9-10-07 136 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That's exactly what it is. But, you 2 know, raising the tax rate is never good news, but that's 3 essentially what he's saying. Good, sound financial planning 4 would indicate that -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're going to have to -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: -- we ought to utilize some of that 7 1.55 cents that's available to us in order to position 8 ourselves in order to take care of this continual dilution of 9 our -- of our tax base. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's going to have an impact. 11 It's already taken its toll, and that's just -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The way it is. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- the way it is. I mean, you 14 don't have the -- the income. As long as we continue to gain 15 a good amount of increased new property values, or new 16 construction coming in, and appraisals continue to go up 17 somewhat, as long as we're very careful how we spend our 18 money, we'll be okay. But it's going to be a real tough 19 couple years. This will be the best one for a while. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But talking about 21 positioning ourselves for the future, Judge, we do that also 22 by -- by locking in a higher effective tax rate and work 23 with -- with the next ensuing year. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure, that has a bearing on that 25 also, just like a debt structure has on your ability to have 9-10-07 137 1 more options with the tax rate. Let me get some information 2 from the Tax Assessor and from the Auditor. Our total current 3 tax rate is point 3 -- total, now. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 39. 5 MS. HARGIS: 38 -- 6 MS. BOLIN: .3587, and then it's .467. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Give me -- what's the total 8 again? 9 MS. HARGIS: With the Road and Bridge -- 10 MS. BOLIN: Okay, that's not including Road and 11 Bridge. Hold on. Do the jeopardy song. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: What do you show, Ms. Hargis? 13 MS. HARGIS: Well, I don't have anything with me, 14 but I think it should be .3875, and .3869 is the total with 15 Road and Bridge. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let's be sure. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's nail it down. 19 MS. BOLIN: .3896. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's more like it. .3896. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: .3896. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And of that, give me the breakdown of 23 what's Road and Bridge and what is -- 24 MS. HARGIS: .034 for Road and Bridge. 25 MS. BOLIN: Wait, are we talking about current taxes 9-10-07 138 1 or the ones that we're going to be using? 2 MS. HARGIS: The ones we're going to use. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: I want to know what the tax rate in 4 Kerr County, total rate, was for last year. This -- 5 MS. BOLIN: Okay. The county is .3587. Road and 6 Bridge was .0309. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: .0309, and .3587. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's .3896. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That brings your total to 10 .3896. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right, current. 12 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 13 MS. HYDE: For 2007, right. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Now, because of rollback issues, we 15 must reduce Road and Bridge to .0304, which is going to make 16 the other one go to -- to remain the same, three -- .3859. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: No, two. .3592, correct? Which will 19 give you .3896. 20 MS. HARGIS: And of that, the tax rate is .0483. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Say again? 22 MS. HARGIS: The tax rate portion is -- debt tax 23 rate portion is .0483. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we need to, in the motion, 25 break out all three of those numbers? 9-10-07 139 1 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The debt, the Road and Bridge, 3 and the -- 4 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Are you sure we need to break the 6 debt portion out of it? 7 MS. HARGIS: Yes. Yes. If you haven't been, you 8 need to. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The debt portion is included within 10 the .3592, okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, what's the new M & O number? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: That would be this .3592. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, but if we have to 14 separate the debt out, we need to know the -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, what you can do is make a 16 motion that the overall tax rate be set at 38.96 cents per 17 100, broken out at 35.92 cents per hundred for general fund 18 M & O, which includes within it 4.83 cents for debt, and the 19 Road and Bridge portion to be 3.04 cents per hundred. 20 MS. HARGIS: Okay. This meeting, really all you're 21 supposed to do is set the public hearings and discuss the 22 rate. You don't vote on any rate at all. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, okay. So, a total one? 24 MS. HARGIS: You discuss the rate that you're going 25 -- that was in the newspaper, and then you have the two public 9-10-07 140 1 hearings, and then you adopt the rate. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 'Cause that is the proposed 3 rate. 4 MS. HARGIS: You're proposing a total rate. You 5 don't have to break it down right -- you know, that's the way 6 I -- now, the County may be different from -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I believe it is. I believe we set a 8 proposed rate, and you do so by record vote of each member of 9 this Court. 10 MS. BOLIN: Right. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: And that doesn't mean that that's 12 where it's going to end up; that's your proposed rate. And 13 then the final adoption will take place on the 28th of this 14 month. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, then, you said the proposed 16 rate is a total, or do you break it out with the amount -- 17 MS. HARGIS: I think the proposed rate doesn't have 18 to be. Now, when you do the final adoption, it does. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What do we publish? 20 MS. HARGIS: You publish the rate range. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just the proposed total 22 rate? 23 MS. HARGIS: You publish the effective tax rate. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The effective tax rate. 25 MS. BOLIN: The proposed -- the proposed effective 9-10-07 141 1 tax rate. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And that is? 3 MS. HARGIS: Well, it's a range. You do not put any 4 total in there. You have -- the rollback rate is in there. 5 The effective rate is in there. I mean, that's the reason why 6 you publish that, is that you have a range to deal within. 7 And then -- 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 9 MS. HARGIS: Because it gives you two options. You 10 either can use the effective rate or the rollback rate, 11 whichever is lower. And then you can go over the maintenance 12 rate by 8 percent, not to hit the rollback rate. And that's 13 pretty much your parameters. You can -- you have to have 14 public hearings on any of that if you go above it. And 15 because you're going over the effective rate -- remember, 16 whichever is lower -- you have to have public hearings. 17 'Cause the effective rate -- when you have growth, your 18 effective rate is lower, so it's -- the purpose of the 19 newspaper is to give the taxpayers the effective rate that 20 would bring in the same dollars that you had last year, what 21 that rate would be. And then the second part is to show them 22 what the rollback rate would be. If you took your 8 percent 23 of -- times your maintenance tax, and add your debt rate, that 24 becomes your rollback rate. You can do either of those or a 25 range in between without causing rollback. So, you have a -- 9-10-07 142 1 a lot of options. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I can make a motion -- 3 MS. HARGIS: Just for a total rate. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'll make a motion -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We're going to take about a 15-minute 6 recess here and make doggone sure we know where we're going. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good. 8 (Recess taken from 1:57 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.) 9 - - - - - - - - - - 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we 11 might. After research, it indicates that on a proposed tax 12 rate, which is -- which exceeds either the rollback rate or 13 the effective tax rate, as those terms are defined in the Tax 14 Code, whichever is the lower, that there must be a proposed 15 tax rate set with a record vote and public hearings to be held 16 before the adoption of that rate. So, at this juncture, 17 because the proposed -- if there is to be a proposed tax rate 18 totaling .3896, which is the current tax rate, that rate would 19 be in excess of the effective tax rate, and it would be 20 necessary for there to be a motion that the proposed tax rate 21 for the 2007 year in Kerr County, the total rate be 38.96 22 cents per 100. And of that sum, 3.04 cents is Road and 23 Bridge, and 35.92 cents is general fund and M & O, and which 24 includes within it debt service of 4.83 cents. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Everybody's in agreement. 9-10-07 143 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm waiting for an "I so move." 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. You can make those 3 motions. And in this motion, everything's broken out just as 4 you described it? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 9 indicated. Any question or discussion? We will take a record 10 vote on the motion. Commissioner Baldwin? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Aye. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Aye. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Aye. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Aye. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Chair votes aye. Now, let's get on 19 to the next order of business. How's that, gentlemen? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Moving right along. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Item 18; consider, discuss, and take 22 appropriate action to authorize publication of notices of 23 proposed salary, expenses, and other allowances of Kerr County 24 elected county or precinct officers for FY 2007-08, and set 25 date, time, and place of public hearing on the same. 9-10-07 144 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We have an amendment that 2 has to take place with respect to the COLA adjustment for at 3 least the County Attorney. Does that also apply to the County 4 Judge? 5 MS. HARGIS: No, those are -- 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Somebody want to give us the 7 number? 8 MS. HARGIS: The number's right on that sheet. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I can't hear you. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ms. Hargis says the number -- 11 the question is on the County Attorney. 12 MS. HARGIS: He currently makes what's in the first 13 column. The next column is his present supplement. There is 14 nothing in the third column. In the fourth column, the 3.5 15 first, and then another 3.5. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the three -- 75,603 times 17 3.5. 18 MS. HARGIS: And then again times 3.5. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: She's saying he's getting 7. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well -- yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. But the issue was, is 23 that only what Kerr County pays him? 24 MS. HARGIS: Yes. Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That was the issue. 9-10-07 145 1 MR. EMERSON: I think the confusion is probably my 2 fault, because all I was calculating in was the COLA. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 4 MR. EMERSON: So -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, then, the schedule that 6 we approved earlier -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is correct. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- is correct, and all we 9 need is a motion to set the time and place and authorize 10 publication, right? And set the date, time, and place for 11 public hearing. What dates do you need, Judge? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: There's only one hearing on that. We 13 could do that one also on the 24th, if that would be your 14 preference. Or -- or some other date. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 24th. I make a motion that we 16 have the public hearing on September 24th at 10:15. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or should we do it before the 19 other one? Does it make any difference? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We had two earlier ones in 21 that time frame, did we not? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, this -- should this 23 hearing be before the others, or does it make any difference? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think it makes any 25 difference. Those are public hearings only. 9-10-07 146 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 10:15. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Here in the Commissioners Courtroom? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And authorize publication of 5 notices. Who's publishing? Diane? Okay. 6 MS. BOLIN: For the public hearings? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 MS. BOLIN: Or the tax rate? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, for the -- this sheet. 10 MS. PIEPER: No, I normally do that. 11 MS. BOLIN: Jannett does that, I thought. 12 MS. PIEPER: I normally do 16 and 18, and the Tax 13 Assessor/Collector normally does 17. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You do 16 and 18, so the County 15 Clerk's going to do this one. 16 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. And the County Clerk to 18 publish that notice. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 20 MS. PIEPER: Okay. 21 MS. HARGIS: I just know where I send it. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a motion and a second. 23 Any further question or discussion on the motion? All in 24 favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9-10-07 147 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, just for clarification on 5 the other -- so everyone knows which notices they're 6 publishing in these, 16 and 17? I mean -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Item 16, the County Clerk is going to 8 take care of that one. Item 18, the County Clerk's going to 9 take care of that one. Item 17, the Tax Assessor will take 10 care of that one. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We'll go to Item 19; consider, 13 discuss, and take appropriate action to amend the Kerr County 14 EDAP application requesting only planning activities funding. 15 Let me also call a closely related item, Number 20. Consider, 16 discuss, and take appropriate action to amend the contract for 17 services with Tetra Tech to provide planning services. 18 Commissioner Williams? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. I'm just 20 going to distribute some information to the Court to bring you 21 up to speed on where this is. I'm not asking for any action 22 today, and the reason is because we don't need any action 23 today, particularly to amend the application. I received word 24 back from Water Development Board late Friday, after I placed 25 this on the agenda, that indicated that since we're not asking 9-10-07 148 1 for an amount greater than we had originally applied for, we 2 don't need to have a new resolution. So, we're asking for 3 less than what we originally applied for. And what this is 4 all going to boil down to is that we're going to end up -- 5 'cause we noted earlier, I think, that the -- probably a 6 couple more applications to them as we progress through this 7 project, and working out -- working with them on the rules. 8 So, what I've given the Court today is just an 9 update on some of the materials that they have requested that 10 we send. I'm packaging all that together, getting ready to 11 send it back to them to respond to all the -- the attachments 12 that they sent looking for additional information. And on the 13 Tetra Tech thing, I want to get with the County Attorney to 14 take a look at the current contract and see what amendments 15 need to be made to that current contract to reflect where we 16 are. You'll see here, by the information that's provided by 17 Tetra Tech, that the planning engineering subtotal that we're 18 really talking about now is $385,000, and as we work through 19 this phase by phase by phase, we will end up getting to that 20 $12,670,000 total project. So, today, all that -- all I'll be 21 bringing back later on the Tetra Tech contract is $385,000 to 22 amend their contract. 23 Now, there's a timeline also that's provided. First 24 time I've seen the timeline. And it takes us through where we 25 are today to -- hopefully without any -- any slips of the lip, 9-10-07 149 1 it takes us through into construction in July of '09, and into 2 '010, which is probably about reasonably accurate, based on 3 the way these things move forward. The EDAP application which 4 is really being amended provides a whole bunch of things that 5 we got to think about doing. And the -- a lot of the 6 information I've already gathered or am in the process of 7 gathering, but one of the big elements of that is some 8 modifications to our Subdivision Rules. T.W.D.B. believes 9 that we need to either adopt their model rules -- subdivision 10 rules, as -- as a supplement to ours, or amend certain 11 sections of that. Not being our recognized authority on that, 12 I asked Commissioner Letz to get involved with T.W.D.B. and 13 their attorney, and he's done that. And, Jon, will you fill 14 the Court in on what you see on the subdivision rule stuff? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rex has also done a fair amount 16 of work on this. But I visited with their attorney, and we 17 have -- our rules have to incorporate their model rules, or 18 there's an avenue for substantial compliance that we can do, 19 that our rules are in substantial compliance to theirs, which 20 is probably the route that I'm going to recommend. And, you 21 know, visiting some with Rex about it, the differences, for 22 the most part, are not real significant, but there are some 23 that are pretty significant. The -- their rules -- their 24 model rules were drafted -- I mean, a little bit of history; I 25 think it explains why we have some conflicts, too. Their 9-10-07 150 1 model rules were drafted based on the border counties' 2 original EDAP funding parameters, where they had a lot of 3 colonias, so their rules deal heavily -- or rely heavily on 4 the Texas Water Code for their authority, and go a -- pretty 5 extensively in waterways, water issues. That's not a real big 6 issue for us. 7 The one time that we ventured a little bit down that 8 road, we just didn't have anyone on staff to review them, and 9 we kind of backed off from that in our newest version. Their 10 rules do not have a whole lot to do with road construction, 11 compared to what we have, and drainage and engineering, all 12 that stuff. So, we're far more than they are in some areas 13 and less in other areas. The -- the laws have changed to 14 allow who can apply for EDAP funding, and also the laws have 15 changed to what our authority is under Chapter 232 of the 16 Local Government Code. The bottom line is, there are 17 inconsistencies that I have found between their model rules 18 and what authority we have under Chapter 232, and it's because 19 they're used to working with Subchapter B and C counties, of 20 which we are not. We're a Subchapter A county. So, anyway, 21 it gets into -- I can tell Buster's already, like, "Will you 22 shut up?" 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. No, you're doing fine. 24 We're not a colonia county, though. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's right, we're not. But we 9-10-07 151 1 -- anyway, so they're looking at three or four points that I 2 found out -- "they" meaning Water Development Board -- with 3 their attorneys as to how we mesh, you know, being a 4 Subchapter A county applying for EDAP versus what their rules 5 require, because there is flat conflict. And then I'm working 6 with Rex and Water Development Board also to look at some 7 minor changes that we can incorporate pretty easily, and then 8 those where we have some heartburn, we'll bring back, or we'll 9 recommend them to come back to the Court. But those that we 10 really have a hard time going along with, we're going to have 11 to probably meet and see if we can meet their guidelines by 12 substantial compliance. An example of that is, according to 13 their model rules, we -- "we" being the Commissioners Court -- 14 cannot give a variance for a setback rule on O.S.S.F. or 15 building -- or structures. And I said, you know, we generally 16 don't do that type of thing, but I said we occasionally need 17 to. I mean, either a terrain situation or there's existing 18 structures and things. It's -- I said we can try to comply, 19 and we do, but there's occasions that we may have a lot size, 20 just because of circumstances, that's 4.99 acres, and their 21 rules will not allow us to give that variance. And I said, 22 you know -- 23 MR. EMERSON: We are still on Item 19, right? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, anyway, I'm working on the 25 Subdivision Rules with Rex and T.W.D.B. to make sure we can 9-10-07 152 1 comply with the model rule requirement. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One other footnote for the 3 Court. I exchanged e-mails with the person, Francia 4 Harutunian, who is the lead T.W.D.B. agent on this 5 application. Among other things, she said, "I would suggest 6 in our letter, with the current information in-hand, plus 7 answers requested with our letter of August 17" -- and I 8 believe I've got a copy of that for y'all -- "we can present a 9 request from the County to our board for only planning funds. 10 This request could involve a 75 percent grant or more, with 11 the remaining 25 percent being a local match. After the board 12 approves this funding and during the planning process, 13 T.W.D.B. staff will contact the Department of Health to 14 request the evaluation of nuisance determination. Should that 15 determination be positive, any future funding of acquisition, 16 design, or construction can be provided at a higher than 17 50 percent, and perhaps up to 100 percent for acquisition and 18 design based on financial analysis." 19 So, as soon as we get this stuff in and they move it 20 through their hoops, they'll assign the Department of Health 21 to do an evaluation in the area. I feel very confident that 22 once we get the Department of Health over there and examine 23 some of the problems that exist in some of those smaller lots, 24 all of which are on septic, and some of those businesses along 25 Highway 480, all on septic, in close proximity to the wells, 9-10-07 153 1 schools, churches, and other things have had problems, we 2 should be able to get that -- that finding of nuisance by the 3 Texas Department of Health. Well, I just wanted to bring the 4 Court up to speed on where we are today. We'll be back with 5 the Subdivision Rules as soon as Commissioner Letz can get 6 that pieced together for us, and we'll go from there, as well 7 as the contract amendments, which I'll talk to the County 8 Attorney about. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there going to be a 10 breakdown on this subdivision rule -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- deal? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, we've got it -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A show-stopper? 15 Deal-breaker? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You mean a "breakdown" as in a 17 problem? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not from what I've seen. I 20 mean, a lot of changes they want are to add a word to the 21 definitions. I mean, you know, a lot of them are pretty 22 minor. There are a few that I have a little bit of heartburn. 23 I can live, but I don't know that I want to give away that 24 authority. That's why I think we want to look at a different 25 approach, substantial compliance. I don't want to adopt their 9-10-07 154 1 rules. I mean, I told Water Development Board that adopting 2 their rules, to me, was nothing but confusion for us locally, 3 because their rules only apply to lot sizes of 5 acres or 4 less, so we would still have to keep our other rules in place 5 for everything bigger than that. Then you'd have conflicting 6 rules, and that would be a nightmare. So, I just think we 7 need to -- there's, like, 10, 15 areas where they pinpointed 8 that we had a problem in our rules. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Could you -- could you adopt 10 their rules as an addendum to ours, and just use -- just use 11 theirs for specific times like this? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have to adopt -- their rules 13 have to be adopted county-wide. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, no. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's what creates a 16 problem. So, we need to address the issues one by one and 17 work out the problems. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it can be done. I mean, 19 and they were -- you know, the guy I talked with -- Joe 20 Reynolds, I think, was his name, the attorney at Water 21 Development Board. He was very easy -- I mean, willing to 22 work with us. You know, it was just a matter of, you know, he 23 doesn't have any wiggle room; that they have to -- they have 24 to sign off that their rules are being followed. And -- you 25 know, but I don't -- we can get there. 9-10-07 155 1 JUDGE TINLEY: You mentioned substantial compliance 2 methodology to get them to approve something. That's not 3 exactly -- 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Jon did. Jon mentioned it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: It occurs to me that one possibility 7 we might explore is that we adopt their rules on anything 8 under 5 acres, and anything over that, our existing rules 9 remain in place. Maybe they'd deem that substantial 10 compliance. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They might. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: If that's where they're focused, is 13 on the smaller tracts. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They would go with that. But 15 it's just -- I just think it would be confusing to our public, 16 'cause you'd -- we'd have to go into our rules, then. I can 17 see the public being very confused by us having two sets of 18 rules. And Rex -- I mean, it's just -- I would rather try to 19 go the other route if we can, because most of their changes 20 are not too significant. Some of them are pretty good; I 21 mean, be good to have. The only issue I see is we're going to 22 have to put language in there like we did with engineering on 23 drainage, that the developer's going to have to pay for an 24 engineer of our choice to review the plans, because we don't 25 have anyone on staff. And -- 9-10-07 156 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which is not a bad rule. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not a bad change. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Anyhow, I will bring it 4 back. Just wanted to bring you up to speed. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Is that all we have on those 6 two items? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, it looks like we're down 9 to the payment of the bills, so it would seem. 10 MS. HARGIS: I think there's some -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Everybody get regrouped and get the 12 right information before them? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Shuffling paper. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to make a motion. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: You may. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. I move we pay the 17 bills. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 20 bills. Any question or discussion? Sheriff, what is ANCO 21 insurance liability, Hartford med. renewal? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's our law enforcement 23 liability insurance policies that -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that an annual premium? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Annual. 9-10-07 157 1 JUDGE TINLEY: $1,176? That's pretty cheap. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Uh-huh. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Cheapest thing he's done 4 today. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably true. I would have thought, 6 with some of the things they get involved in, that it could be 7 a good deal higher than that. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have well-trained, very 9 effective staff that does their job real well and don't get 10 sued too much. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Too much. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Knock on some wood. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I won't ever say we don't get 14 sued. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any other questions or 16 comments? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 17 right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 22 budget amendments. We've got a summary of those items before 23 you. One includes a -- a late bill and a hand check to -- 24 looks like County Treasurers Association of Texas for the 25 Treasurer, I believe, of $150, in order that she might be in 9-10-07 158 1 good graces with those folks. But all the rest of them are 2 spelled out in this summary sheet. I've got the backup 3 information here available if anyone needs to look at that. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can we just go down the line 5 one -- one time, and to refresh my mind on how this thing 6 works? Now, I'm assuming that the red numbers are the 7 negative. Is that -- 8 MS. HARGIS: Right, that's where you're short. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. And, like, the very 10 first one, Road and Bridge revenue, it sayeth -- that's Old 11 Testament talk -- 12 MS. HARGIS: Right. When you get revenue that's 13 unbudgeted, you have to put -- amend it to be able to use it. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 15 MS. HARGIS: So, that's all black, because that's 16 revenue we didn't anticipate coming in. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, the 4,881 is in the 18 current budget, and unexpended budget balance is 5,337? 19 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And requested amendment -- so 21 that's an increase in that line. 22 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: With the 456. 24 MS. HARGIS: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, I'm with you. 9-10-07 159 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, somebody paid us 2 four-hundred -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm with you 100 percent now. 4 Rock and roll. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Explain Number 5, please. 7 MS. HARGIS: Okay. I think that's because -- 8 remember, they didn't have a manager in that department, and 9 we hired one, and so there wasn't a budget in that line item, 10 in Environmental Health. I think you had two managers; you 11 had an interim manager, and now you have a regular manager. 12 And we ran short in that one, so we had to transfer -- 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I guess that's kind of my 14 question. We have a manager -- had a manager, and then had a 15 period of time when we didn't have a manager. Now we have 16 another manager, and we have surplus in that line item, and 17 we're taking it because we are adding a clerk; is that 18 correct? 19 MS. HARGIS: I think that's correct. I think they 20 have hired a clerk in the meantime, before you hired the 21 second manager. I'm not exactly sure of the dynamics that 22 went on in that office. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's stay on that one just 24 for a second. On Manager, we're taking 11,000 out of it and 25 putting it where? 9-10-07 160 1 MS. HARGIS: And moving 5,500 from Manager to 2 Vehicles to get their -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. Okay, cool. 4 MS. HARGIS: -- so that they can get their cars. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And 10,000 of it to the 6 Clerk? 7 MS. HARGIS: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 9 MS. HARGIS: So, we were actually over in those line 10 items, so we needed some in the Vehicle Repair, so that's 11 where that went. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions on the budget 13 amendment? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All of them as per the summary? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. I guess. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I have a motion. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: And a second. Any further question 21 or discussion on the budget amendments? All in favor, signify 22 by raising your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 9-10-07 161 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. I believe we took 2 care of the late bill on that last one? 3 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: As part of the budget request 5 summary. I've been presented with monthly reports for 6 Constable, Precinct 1; Constable, Precinct 4; J.P., Precinct 7 1, and Environmental Health. Do I hear a motion that these 8 reports be approved as presented? 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So moved. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion and second that reports be 12 approved as presented. Any further question or discussion? 13 All in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Got any 18 reports from any of the Commissioners in connection with their 19 liaison or committee assignments? I think we pretty well 20 covered the airport issue. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I believe we did. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Looks like we've got a gazebo 23 going on outside. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And a sidewalk. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And a sidewalk. And I don't 9-10-07 162 1 know when the completion date is, but you know when the 2 dedication is. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm going to tell you in just a 4 minute, unless you want me to do it now. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, absolutely not. I 6 don't want to steal your thunder. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got lots of thunder. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You need it. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That's probably true, at home and 10 elsewhere. Is that all you got? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I guess so. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You stole my thunder. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Why me? One, four, three, 16 two? How does it go? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Just jump in there. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm worn out on the airport. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You're worn out? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have nothing else. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I figured that's why I was coming to 22 you. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, as far as I know, I 24 haven't been out to -- we haven't had another inspection, to 25 my knowledge, at the Animal Control, but the drain situation 9-10-07 163 1 where we were written up has been rectified. They are working 2 as well as they're ever going to work, and maybe better than 3 was ever expected. Of course, the horse stall sales was a 4 good thing. Let me see, what else is happening? I haven't 5 had a problem with Environmental Health in about two weeks, so 6 I can't say anything about that one. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What about the -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: About what? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you have a timeline on when 10 we're going to bring people -- Hill Country Youth Exhibit 11 design people in? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think we need to do that. 13 We need to have that on -- like, make a few phone calls. We 14 kind of put the ad out, but we haven't got any calls -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: No, we haven't got the ad out yet. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The ad's not out? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: No. I've got some rough language, 18 and I'm going to get with the Auditor -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've talked to a couple of 20 people that are interested in doing it. I know you've talked 21 to one. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Talked to one. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I know there's three that are 24 interested, but it's probably more. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. And the one that I know 9-10-07 164 1 about is that they will -- they'll be glad -- you know, we 2 can't guarantee them they'll get the bid or anything, but they 3 do all the services that we need done, and it's part of -- 4 part of a planning package. And they do the engineering of 5 the slab and the building, and do a site plan and everything, 6 the design part of it. So, I think those services are out 7 there, almost -- at almost no cost. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The ones I've talked to, one of 9 the ones I talked to was pretty much the same kind of thing. 10 No cost. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They'll all want to bid on it. 12 Whoever gets the bid on the thing eventually, you know, will 13 be paid, you know, out of their contract price. But that's 14 kind of where that is. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you and I will just get 16 together, then, and kind of go over that. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I would encourage -- we need 18 to get that ad in the paper. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So that, you know, in two 21 weeks or so, at the next meeting, we ought to have somebody in 22 here to get this thing rolling. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm encouraged to hear that there's 24 that much interest from folks. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. Well, it's what they 9-10-07 165 1 do. It's how they make their living. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a big project for this 3 area. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It is. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not huge, but it's -- it's a big 6 -- its a type of project that a lot of people are capable of 7 doing. It's not like, you know -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, it's not a specialized 9 thing, where -- very few people can build a hospital, you 10 know. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. This is -- pretty much if 12 you can -- if you're a contractor, you can do this job. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Reckon we can get that much interest 14 in the courthouse windows? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm -- that might be a little 16 more difficult. Little more difficult. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You take care of your deal 18 over there. We'll take care of ours. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll take care of ours. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I'm dealing with the folks over 21 there that remind me on almost a weekly basis, "Now, don't 22 forget, we want to see what you're going to do, and we got six 23 months to pat our foot about it." So, now to the item of the 24 day. Commissioner Baldwin, Gene Lehmann, the benefactor 25 who -- who provided the gazebo to us, I talked to him last 9-10-07 166 1 week, and he indicated that all of his children were going to 2 be available on October the 12th. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Columbus Day. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Columbus Day. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: And that's a Friday this year. Don't 6 know whether that's going to be a courthouse holiday or 7 whether the following Monday will be. That's another thing 8 that we'll take up before we adopt a budget on the 24th, or as 9 part of the budget, maybe. But he indicated if there was any 10 way possible if we could do whatever we were going to do on 11 that date, he would -- he'd particularly like for that to 12 happen, and I think it's appropriate that we do it on that 13 date. So, we need to plan some sort of a dedication ceremony 14 to do that on that date, in the morning. Apparently, A & M 15 plays down at College Station on that -- the next day, so he's 16 going to be wanting to go down to A & M to watch the ball 17 game, I think. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: God, for what reason? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Needs to take Leonard with 20 him. And Rex. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, are you finished on that? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. You mentioned 24 something -- are you going to put it on the next agenda, all 25 those other documents that are part of our budget that we 9-10-07 167 1 don't spend much time on, such as the calendar and -- 2 MS. WILLIAMS: Holiday schedule. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Y'all are doing that? It will 4 be on the next agenda, all that other stuff? 5 MS. WILLIAMS: Jody and I were just discussing that. 6 We'll get together and look at the calendar, the rest of this 7 year and the nine months beginning next year, and see what the 8 holidays -- where they fall. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we need to also get, I 10 believe, the position schedule and all that other stuff. All 11 kinds of stuff that has to go in our budget that we need to -- 12 so it would be nice if we get that whole package ready at our 13 next meeting so we can look at it and approve it. And -- you 14 know, before we forget about it. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think Ms. Williams has 16 something that she needs to report on to us before we -- being 17 as she is one of the elected officials' reports. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: It's now that time for reports by 19 elected officials. Ms. Williams? 20 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Step right up here. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not going to like it. 23 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. The County Auditor told me 24 during the break this morning that we're going to have to 25 start having our fee officers turning their moneys in daily to 9-10-07 168 1 the County Treasurer. And correct me if I'm wrong, but that 2 we will be doing away with those bank accounts that these fee 3 officers have right now, which means if they're going to be 4 turning in funds daily to me, it's going to be cash, checks, 5 credit card transactions. That is going to put a real burden 6 on my office, if that's what I'm understanding from the County 7 Auditor. 8 MS. HARGIS: No. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 10 MS. WILLIAMS: All right, then please explain it to 11 the Court, because that's what I got out of it earlier. 12 MS. HARGIS: Okay. I was asked by Mindy last Friday 13 that -- she and the Sheriff were discussing whether or not the 14 officers should turn in their money daily or within seven days 15 or 30 days. And, reacting to her question, I looked it up, 16 and we discussed the fact that we'll be getting to the 50,000 17 mark pretty soon. My suggestion was that we, in the next 18 year, slowly take one office at a time and convert it over. 19 We won't -- if we don't want to do it this year, and think 20 we're going to be at the 50,000 mark next year, that's fine, 21 but I don't think it's something we want to do quickly. It's 22 something we're going to have to take our time and do one 23 department at a time, get used to that department, then take 24 on another department. So, it's going to take a while to do 25 it. If you don't think we're quite ready for that yet, you 9-10-07 169 1 know, I would -- what I would like to see, though -- what I 2 would like to see from all of the departments is that we start 3 turning their money in on a weekly basis, writing a check to 4 the Treasurer on a weekly basis with their checking accounts, 5 because in order for us to get the full bang for our buck out 6 of our investments, we need to get the money out of their 7 accounts. And, to give you a small idea, you could have as 8 much as $10,000 a day in one of your J.P. offices. You 9 multiply that times four, that's 40, and then in the bigger 10 offices, so we could have -- we have a lot of money that sits 11 in -- in non-interest bearing type accounts that we need to 12 take care of. So, I would suggest at this time -- I don't -- 13 and she asked me about it, so I thought that's what she wanted 14 to do. It would be nice to have them do daily, and they will, 15 at 50,000, have to do it. But if they're not ready for 16 that -- and my other comment to her was we need to get them 17 together and kind of get everybody on board and give them a 18 little advance notice. This is something that's going to take 19 some time. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Question. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How many offices do we have that 22 are -- or checking accounts do we have floating around? 23 MS. HARGIS: We have -- all the J.P.'s have their 24 own. Mindy, help me with this. The clerks have their own 25 checking accounts. 9-10-07 170 1 MS. WILLIAMS: County Clerk, District Clerk, Tax 2 Assessor, Sheriff, all four J.P.'s. And I believe -- 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Constables. 4 MS. WILLIAMS: No, constables don't have bank 5 accounts. But the Juvenile Probation Department and the 6 County Attorney does. 7 MS. HARGIS: We have a lot. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: When you say 50,000, you're 9 talking about when the population -- 10 MS. HARGIS: When the population -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- in Kerr County hits 12 50,000? 13 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Then it's mandatory? 15 MS. HARGIS: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 17 MS. HARGIS: And I think -- which I think we're 18 around 44,000 to 46,000, so if it doesn't happen this year, it 19 will next year. So, what I would suggest we do is maybe get 20 our transition program started this year, and then implement 21 it in the following year. That will give us a chance to get 22 her department to where it needs to be. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Question. At what frequency are the 24 fee officers turning in their funds now to the Treasurer's 25 office? 9-10-07 171 1 MS. HARGIS: Once a month. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: So, let me see if I've got this 3 right. The District Clerk, Tax Assessor, County Clerk, 4 Sheriff, whomever, are maintaining separate demand deposit 5 accounts, which are not accruing any sort of earnings? 6 MS. HARGIS: I don't know that to be a fact, but the 7 ones I've seen are just regular checking accounts. 8 MS. WILLIAMS: Right. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, they are not. 10 MS. WILLIAMS: The majority of those fee officer 11 accounts do accrue. We have one J.P. who, when they set up 12 their account, set it up as a non-interest bearing account. 13 The reason I believe behind them doing that was they were 14 concerned that the interest would not offset the service 15 charge that the bank was charging at that time. Now, I don't 16 believe the bank is charging us a service charge. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are these all with the same 18 depository, or different banks? 19 MS. WILLIAMS: They're the County depository. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's good. 21 MS. WILLIAMS: There is one correction. The Tax 22 Office does turn in their moneys either once a week or every 23 other week as the moneys are accrued. But all the other fee 24 officers -- the County Clerk, the District Clerk, the four 25 J.P.'s, even the Sheriff -- turn them in once a month. After 9-10-07 172 1 they -- after the end of the month, they receive their bank 2 statements, they reconcile it, they do their report, they get 3 it to balance, then they turn the fees over to the Treasurer. 4 MR. EMERSON: Do Rusty's first. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. First, and this is 6 something -- 'cause I did bring it to Mindy's -- this is what 7 we discovered during the investigation we did on the former 8 Treasurer. It's -- it's Chapter 113 out of the Local 9 Government Code; the Judge has it. What it says is it doesn't 10 matter how many bank accounts you got. Any officer that 11 collects fees is required by -- under Chapter 113 to turn 12 those in to the County Treasurer by the end of the business 13 day. Failing that, within seven days. Okay? And the only 14 other way -- and this is where we couldn't find that the Court 15 had ever done it, and it probably should be on the Court's 16 agenda. The only other way that you can keep those fees, like 17 Animal Control had been keeping stuff a full month before they 18 turned -- is with approval of Commissioners Court, which means 19 there ought to be a court order saying that those officers 20 collecting fees can turn those in once a month. Otherwise, 21 they have to be turned in no later than seven days, and 22 preferably at the end of the business day they're -- they're 23 taken. 24 Now -- and then once you hit a population of 50,000, 25 in talking to the D.A. about this during all that 9-10-07 173 1 investigation, that 50,000 goes by the U.S. census, okay? Not 2 just that we think it might go up. Whatever -- whenever the 3 next census is; 2010, I guess. Whatever it is, if it shows 4 Kerr County's over 50,000, then I think there's a whole lot of 5 things that have to change, including that. Okay? But I 6 would recommend if y'all want to let department heads keep 7 their money until the end of the month, there needs to be a 8 court order, which there isn't. But the other thing is, why a 9 lot of your department heads, such as mine, has individual 10 accounts, I have a civil account. That civil account is -- is 11 deposited in daily. It's audited by the person taking it, 12 which is my civil secretary and by my secretary, and it's 13 balanced there, and then the County is written a check from 14 that, so we have a checks and balances. That goes through 15 about three steps, and, you know, it's supposed to be being 16 done weekly right now, is the way it was supposed to have 17 been, so that we would stay in our bail bond fees. 18 Anything that -- any county official, not just 19 elected. Any county employee who accepts fees or collects 20 fees, whether it's a bail bond or whether it's constables, 21 civil papers that they serve and gets mailed in, serving civil 22 subpoenas, whatever, okay, any money coming in is required by 23 law right now to be deposited with the Treasurer, at the very 24 most, within seven days. And that's something this County's 25 had an issue with for all these years. 'Cause I never could 9-10-07 174 1 find where there was an order saying that we could have 30 2 days doing it. But it is something that's coming. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just -- let's hear from Rex; 4 then I have a further comment. 5 MR. EMERSON: I was just going to say, my 6 situation's a little bit different, because we have a checking 7 account, but our checking account is a trust account. We take 8 in the moneys from hot check payers. Once a month we 9 reconcile, we issue the checks to the merchants, and it's only 10 once a month that the County generates its fees, and that 11 check itself goes to Mindy, usually that day or the next day. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, most of your funds is trust 13 account; they're not county funds. 14 MR. EMERSON: Right. Mine sits in trust all month 15 until the end of the month, when the software reconciles and 16 cuts a check to the merchants. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's not a fee. Okay? If 18 it's not a fee, it doesn't fall under that chapter, which is a 19 different -- 20 MR. EMERSON: The fee is generated once a month, at 21 the end of the month, when it reconciles and our statutory fee 22 is paid. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Seems to -- well, I would think 24 that we probably did the once-a-month thing a lot when bank 25 statements would come out once a month. But with online 9-10-07 175 1 banking, everyone should be able to look at their account 2 daily. And with that being said, I think people should -- we 3 should just get in the habit of doing it once a week, and then 4 that gets us in a better -- you know, it gives the Treasurer's 5 office time to get used to this, and in about two years, we 6 may or may not be at the point that we're going to have to do 7 it daily. 8 MS. WILLIAMS: My one concern is that there are some 9 funds -- and I'll use the District Clerk -- that have to be 10 held in trust. And I don't think that those could be turned 11 over to me. I think that the Court orders the District Clerk 12 or the County Clerk to put that money into a separate account. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Trust funds are going to be separate, 14 anyway. She's got a number of trust accounts that she 15 maintains and she brings to the Court every year. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Talking about fees. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Very similar to Rex's trust account, 18 where that's other folks' money. That's not our money. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can't invest that, I don't 20 think. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's not a fee. What they're 22 talking about is fees under Chapter 113. 23 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So if it's not considered a 25 fee, it probably will not qualify under this to be -- to be 9-10-07 176 1 under those regulations. 2 MS. HARGIS: You're -- yeah, you're actually not 3 supposed to -- Rex, correct me if I'm wrong. You're not 4 supposed to make interest on that trust fund. 5 MR. EMERSON: Actually, we can. We can by statute. 6 We can make it, and interest goes to the benefit of the 7 County. 8 MS. HARGIS: Right. But what about the other 9 departments? Can they do it as well? 10 MR. EMERSON: Depends on the account. Depends on 11 each statute. 12 MS. WILLIAMS: I think it depends on what the Court 13 says they have to do. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why don't y'all work out a 15 game plan in terms of what you think is best and a transition 16 period, time to get there. 17 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. 18 MS. WILLIAMS: The one -- I'm sorry. The one 19 concern that I had is if we went -- and maybe I misunderstood 20 Jeannie, and I probably did. But if we did away with their 21 independent accounts, they would be turning over all their 22 cash and checks that they brought in that day to me. I would 23 have to have -- and I still am going to have to have a 24 breakdown of what goes where. What is county money? What is 25 state money? What are the GL codes that tie to that? So, I'm 9-10-07 177 1 willing to work with her and anyone else, and if we start on 2 it now, I think by the time we get to the 50,000 and we have 3 to do it, it'll be in place and it won't be so difficult. 4 MS. HARGIS: We need to work on this a little bit. 5 I was -- I thought we were just visiting. I had, you know, no 6 idea, you know. 'Cause I haven't thought it through myself, 7 either. Tommy and I were just kind of brainstorming about it 8 a little bit this morning. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we need to be looking out ahead 10 of us, and that's what y'all are doing at this point, then. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The current law that all 12 department heads need to be reminded of right now is, 13 actually, the way it's set up right now, everybody is supposed 14 to be turning them in no later than -- it should be the same 15 day, but no later than seven days. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we ought to maybe send 17 out a memo, maybe out of Rex's office, 'cause he's the County 18 Attorney, and remind everyone of that policy, and start 19 getting them to do it, because I think it -- I mean, with the 20 technology today, there's no reason not to, and it's a lot of 21 money that we're losing the use of. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But you may want to set some 23 times, 'cause I know Mindy would just about die at the end of 24 the day if, at 4:45, all the department heads throughout the 25 county walked in with all this money on Friday afternoon and 9-10-07 178 1 said, "Here it is." 2 MS. HARGIS: Well, right now they have their own 3 checking accounts, so all they would bring is one check. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But they -- they don't 5 have to do it all on Friday. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: J.P.'s can do it -- 8 MS. WILLIAMS: Stagger them. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just have to set it up. 10 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Work it out with you. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Now, the one thing I wanted to 13 mention as far as department head's report, every time y'all 14 see my chief deputy from now on, you have to call him grandpa. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Really? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He's now the proud grandpa of a 17 little boy. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is he really? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's neat. 21 MS. HARGIS: Just real quick, 'cause I know there's 22 a bunch of kids standing out in the hallway -- I tried to talk 23 to you a little bit about this, Judge, but it looks like the 24 auditor will not do the audit. And we -- I need to either get 25 an RFP ready so y'all can approve it whenever -- at these 9-10-07 179 1 public meetings so I can get it out. One of the auditors that 2 I talked to, remember, in Austin, I got a letter today saying 3 they would not be interested in doing the 2008 audit. I have 4 one firm that's kind of interested in doing it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Did you know? 6 MS. HARGIS: No, nobody did. We just found out. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, Pressler Thompson says 8 they're not doing it? 9 (Ms. Hargis shook her head.) 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 11 MS. HARGIS: So, I've tried to talk him out of it 12 for about a week or so, and this morning he just said no. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There are plenty of them out 14 there. 15 MS. HARGIS: So we just need to -- we'll just need 16 to get y'all to approve an RFP to go out. If you approve it, 17 then I'll just go ahead and put one in the newspaper and get 18 it out there, and I'll send out some letters as well. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd prepare it so we can approve 20 it at the next meeting. 21 MS. HARGIS: Okay. And just keep in mind, we were 22 late this year with our audit, so as long as we get it out in 23 April, I'd be ecstatic. I think we can do that. We just have 24 to put a time frame, okay? 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not your fault on that deal. 9-10-07 180 1 That's the previous auditor that didn't get us warned up in 2 time and get us on notice so that we could advertise for an 3 auditor in due time. 4 MS. HARGIS: He was -- when we made the changes to 5 the engagement letter, he just felt that -- that he -- no 6 matter what he did, that it wouldn't be sufficient, and so he 7 just felt that it would be better if we got somebody that we 8 had more trust in. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sometimes you call those 10 blessings in disguise. 11 MS. HARGIS: So -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Work itself out. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. Do we have any 14 other reports from elected officials? Department heads? 15 Roadhands? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There are still a few brochures 17 up here about speleology if anybody wants them. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's fold it up. We'll be 19 adjourned. 20 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 3:10 p.m.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 23 24 25 9-10-07 181 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my 5 capacity as County Clerk of the Commissioners Court 6 of Kerr County, Texas, at the time and place 7 heretofore set forth. 8 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 14th day of 9 September, 2007. 10 11 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 12 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 13 Certified Shorthand Reporter 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9-10-07